Next  Revolution. 


DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


0 


/  S10 
Cataloged 


Vuke  In    rsuy  Library 


NEXT  REVOLUTION : 


If 


— OR— 


WOMAN'S  EMANCIPATION 


— FROM- 


SEX  SLAVERY 

(NO.  «.) 


PBICEt  »rs  CEXTS. 


LDOIFEB  PUBLISH  TNG  COMPANY, 
Vallrt  Fall*,  Kaxbaa. 
590. 


r\-mpbiet  Collection 
Q     <;  L:  aversity  Library 


"O  I  _A.  33~  .A . 

A  PSYCHO  K"  "TOljO«rlCAL  ESSAY  ON 

SEX  Q  ^EL-A_TIO!SrS . 

ForManed  Men  and  Women. 

Fou.  th  Edition.  .Jethedava  Improve*}.         Pi  ice  2.5  cents.. 

'*lhe  teaefnncr?  of  "Diana"  hu  ve  '  *■<  eleorned  by  liiundreds  of 
intelligent  and  th< r.ni^,jaiifu.l  people.  Many  o  .  these  have  expressed 
their  pleasure  at  ieeemng  the  p  re  and  relining  ligi«r  thrown  upon 

sexual  subjects  by  the  prmcipl  -s  advance's  i:i  it.  Allium  and  Dinn- 
ism  are  now  words  tbat  have  n  specific  meaning-  among  those  who 
arc  °eeking  to  effect  a  reform  in  the  general  thou; rhta.  and  habits  of 
pc  jple  on  the  sex  quopf  ion.  Tho  theory  of  "Dual  Functions,"  first 
h  ivanced  in  Diana,  Uas  been  received  with  special  tavor.  The  clean 
and  scientific  met!  od  employed  in  this  woik  has  prevented  all  ob- 
jections to  it  on  ti'O  score  of  immorality,  audits  renewed  publica- 
tion is  justified,  not-  alone  by  its  merits,  but  by  use  numerous  letters 
of  approval  received."— Preface-  to  Third  Edition. 

This  Remarkable  little  work  may  well  be  called  "The  Bone  of 
Content  ion"— both  Radicals  and  Conservatives  claiming  it  as  the 
exponent  and  defender  of  their  philosophy  in  regard  to  sexual  hy- 
srione  and  sexual  morality.  It  is  having  a  large  sa'e  and  is  doubt- 
less tho  means  of  exciting  much  useful  discussion  and  investigation. 


The  Law  of  Population. 

ITS  CONSEQUENCES  AND 

Its  Bearing  on  Human  Conduct  and  Morals, 

iii-  ANNIE  BESAXT.  * 
"It  is  time  that  those  whcieallv  understand  tbt  c  ause  ot  a  re 
dundanc.  unhappy,  miserable,  and  considerably  vicious  population 
and  the  means  of  preventing  the  redundancy,  should  clearly,  freely 
openly  and  fearlessly  point  out  the  moans." 

Now  while  the  marriage  question  is  up  for  discussion  it  would 
seem  a  good  and  suitable  time  to  discuss  the  kindred  subject,  "Law 
of  Population,"  includingthe  "Preventive  Check."  Thirty-fourth 
thoueand,  30  cents.   Cheap  edition,  15  cents. 


CUPID'S  YOKES 

 OR  THE  

Binding   Forces    of    Gonjugal  Life. 

By  E.  H.  HKYWOOD. 

This  is  the  pamphlet  for  the  mailing  of  which  D.  M.  Bennett 
was  compelled  to  serve  ibirteen  months  in  the  Albany  Penitentia- 
ry, and  Mr.  Heywood,  himself,  was  Imprisoned  a  short  time  in  the 
Dedham  Jali,  all  brcanse  of  the  alleged  obs^nity  contained  there- 
in. If  you  want  to  learn  something  on  tha  Marriage  Question  you 
cannot  afford  to  omit  reading  this  work.    Price,  15  cents. 


/ 

■Contents. 

Page. 

Come,  Let  us  ReasoD  Together.   M.  Harman  m  Luci- 

"FEB   1 

The  American  Inquisition,  Its  Methods  and  Objects—- 

The  Issue  Clearly  Stated.  Ed.  W.  Chamberlain . .  5 
Another  Arrest;  Causes  and  Probable  Consequences 

Thereof.    Diana   7 

Another  Vienna's  Sad  Story.    S-idie  Athena  Mage  on. .  9 

The  Woman  Question  (No.  3)    Penelope   10 

More  Obscenity.   Light  Throne  into  Dark  Places  by  a 

Conservative  Journal.   Editor   11 

Crimes  Against  Womanhood.    The  O'Neill  Letter  Vin- 
dicated and  Duplicated   13 

A  Question  of  Judicial  Integrity.   Ed.  W.  Chamberlain  15 

The  Woman  Question  (No  4).   Penelope.   18 

The  Woman  Question  (No.  5).   Pen  elope   19 

Sympathy,  Expose  and  Query.   M.  E.  Tillottso   21 

Notes  and  Comments.  Editor  <   22 

Voices  From  Past  Ages  and  Echoes  From  the  Present.  25 

The  Nude  in  Literature   27 

The  Woman  Question  (No.  6).    Penelope   29 

Dagmar  Manager  to  Judge  Foster  ,   S3 

Another  Appeal.   Mrs.  L.  D.  McCaelm   82 

Marital  Abuses  a  Fruitful  Cause  of  Insanity.   Flora  W. 

Fox   83 

O'Neill  to  His  Critics                 . .  .   34 

That  which  is  Done  in  Secret  Shall  be  Proclaimed  Upon 

the  House  top.    Lois  Waisbrooker   85 

"Scienter"— "Knowingly."    Diana  ,   36 

Who  and  What  are  on  Trial.    Editor   38 

Notes  and  Comment's.   Editor.   41 

Who  and  What  are  on  Trial.    Editor   43 

NoteP  and  Comments.    Editor  , .  ,   44 

The  Issue  Concisely  Stated.   Editor   45 

Who  is  Sufficient  for  These  Things.   Lucinda  B«  Chan- 
dler   48 

Notes  of  Trial.    Editor   49 

Convicted.  Editor   53 

Scraps  frr  m  Society  and  Law,     Dap  mar  Mariager   54 

Pent  up  Heart  Cries.    Mrs.  E.  A,  Abbey . ,   55 

The  Trial.   Editor   58 

More  Letters  to  the  Judge.    Clark  Luce   62 

Another  Woman's  Story  of  Wrong  and  Outrage.  The- 
resa Hushes  .«   63 

Court  Notes.    Editor   65 

A  Strong  Expression.    Ira  H.  Wilsou   66 

Sentenced.   Editor  ,    67 


I^rratum. 

In  nineteenth  line  from  bottom  of  page  54,  read  heap- 
ing instead  of  "loving." 


PREFA^p. 

While  we  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to  make  an 
apology  for  the  appearance  of  this  pamphlet,  perhaps 
a  little  explanation  may  not  be  altogether  out  of  place 
as  to  the  arrangement  of  the  matter  herein.  In  order 
that  the  reader  may  understand  why  there  is  sack  an 
incongruous  disposition,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
everything  contained  in  this  work  was  used  just  as  it 
came  out  of  Lucifer  from  week  to  week,  rendering  it 
absolutely  impossible  to  classify  or  divide  it  into  de- 
partments. 

The  scope  covered  by  this  pamphlet  embrace*  the 
leading  articles  that  appeared  in  the  Light-Bearer 
from  the  early  part  of  March  until  Mr.  Harman  was 
sentenced,  or  until  about  the  first  of  May,  '90.  And 
as  there  is  a  manifest  imperfection  or  indiscriminate 
arrangement,  rendering  it  somewhat  difficult  for  the 
reader  to  fully  understand  or  comprehend  their  in- 
tent or  purport  without  a  perusal  of  the  issues  of 
Lucieer  current  with  the  extracts  which  comprise 
this  work,  we  will  send  these,  on  application,  to  all 
purchasers  of  the  pamphlet,  so  long  as  the  editious  of 
those  dates  last. 

With  regard  to  import  or  purpose,  the  articles 
composiug  the  Next  Revolution  No.  2,  can  be  class- 
ed under  the  following  heads  : 

(1)  Endorsements  and  duplicates  of  the  O'Neill 
letter,  and  condemnation  of  the  second  arrest. 

(2)  Protests  against  the  persecution  of  Lucifer's 
editor  for  his  defense  of  free  speech  and  the  right  of 
free  discussion,  especially  in  matters  pertaining  to  the 
right  i-elations  of  the  sexes. 

(8)  Account  of  and  comments  upon  the  late  trial, 
conviction  and  sentence  of  Moses  Harmau. 

This  work  was  assuming  too  large  proportions 
and  its  issue  was  being  delayed  too  long,  so  that  the 
continuation  of  the  discussion  on  the  same  subjects, 
largely,  will  be  continued  in  the  Next  Revolution 
No.  3,  now  in  course  of  preparation. 

The  Publishers. 


COME,  LET  IS  REASON  TOGETHER. 


In  order  to  reason  together  we  must  hear  both  sides, 
or  rather  all  sides.  In  this  issue  of  Lucifer  letters 
are  printed  from  more  than  one  correspondent  endors- 
ing fully  the  plan,  the  act,  of  giving  publicity  to  such 
revelations  as  those  made  by  Dr.  O'Neill, W.  G.  Mark- 
land,  Sadie  A.  Magoon,  C.  C.  Luce  and  others.  In 
the  "Opposition"  column  are  printed  some  opinions 
denouncing  in  most  emphatic  language  the  publication 
of  such  matters.  Besides  these  pronounced  expres- 
sions of  opinion  from  friends  and  foes  we  have  re- 
ceirtd  several  letters  that  take  a  somewhat  middle 
ground.  Among  these  is  one  from  an  old  (not  in 
years)  and  much  esteemed  friend,  which  reads  thus: 

  Kan.,  ;M  '90 

Dbab  Mr.  Hat*man;  The  copy  of  Lucifer  for  whicli  you  have  agaiu 
been  arrested  lies  before  me.  It  is  too  Dad  that  you  have  allowed 
such  Indecent,  vulgar  matter  in  your  paper.  Such  articles  canno  t 
and  should  not  be  read  in  decent  company  nor  olsewhere.  They 
convey  nolnformation,  suggest  no  remedy  and  only  have  a  tendancy 
to  deprave  the  weak  and  disgust  the  strong .  You  had  won  a  splen- 
did victory  and  it  is  too  bad  that  you  have  given  it  away. 

Of  course  the  U.  S.  Court  has  uo  ri^ht  to  fine  and  imprison  you  for 
mailing  the  paper,  it  has  no  other  right  than  to  protect  its  postal 
employees  from  physical  injury,  from  explosives,  etc.,  but  who  can 
successfully  defend  the  right  to  send  through  the  mails  really 
OBSOBNK  literature  when  it  is  so  difficult  to  maintain  our  rights  even 
when  we  do  not  abuse  these  rights?  Of  course  you  will  say,  "what 
is  obscene,  and  who  shall  judge?"  Each  one  for  himself,  is  my 
answer,  and  rest  assured  that  under  liberty,  where  sympathy  for 
you  and  a  desire  to  defend  your  right  to  publish  what  you  please, 
would  not  retain  your  subscribers,  95  percent  would  drop  the  paper 
at  once.  That  would  be  judgment  and  punishment  and  the  only 
kind  that  a  decently  organized  community  would  care  to  inflict. 

Yours  Regretfully  and  in  haste,   ■  

Without  attempting  to  "reason  the  case"  on  all  the 
points  named  in  this  letter,  I  would  respectfully  say: 

It  may  be  true,  as  above  intimated,  that  the  course 
pursued  by  Lucifer's  editor  is  a  suicidal  one,  so  far 
as  the  welfare  of  the  paper  is  concerned.  Judging 
from  the  indications — the  expressions  of  strong  dis- 
approval, some  ot  which  expressions  have  been  pub- 
lished— and  judging  from  the  sudden  falling  off  of 
receipts,  it  did  look  awhile  as  though  Lucifer's 
friends  and  patrons  would  soon  be  reduced  to  the 
traditional  and  historic  "three  hundred1' — the  number 
that  was  left,  after  the  sifting,  to  Gideon  at  Mt. 
Gilead,  and  to  Leonidas  at  the  pass  of  Thermopylae. 


Now,  if  I  may  be  allowed  ,o  use  the  illustration  (dis- 
claiming, of  course,  all  intention  of  comparing  my 
humble  self  to  any  heroic  personage,  whether  histor- 
ical or  mythical)  I  will  say  that  a  presentiment  now 
comes  to  me  that  the  O'Neill  letter  will  prove  to  be 
the  Thermopylae  of  the  conflict  in  defense  of  the  right 
of  free  publication — the  palladium  of  all  human  lib- 
erties, whether  present  or  future.  It  may  be — and  if 
the  utterances  of  the  opposition  press  are  true  pro- 
phecies it  will  be — that  at  the  coming  trial  ai  Topeka, 
Lucifer  and  its  editor  will  be  as  effectually  wiped 
out  of  existence,  so  far  as  future  work  is  concerned, 
as  were  Leonidas  and  the  three  hundred  Spartans  by 
the  countless  hosts  of  Persian  invaders,  but  it  is  just 
possible  that  in  this  case,  as  in  the  historic  one,  the 
sacrifice  may  not  be  all  in  vain.  The  sacrifice  at 
Thermopylae  wat  a  necessary  preparation  for,  and  an 
essential  factor  of,  Marathon  and  Salamis.  Without 
Thermopylae  there  would  have  been  no  Marathon,  no 
Salamis! 


In  like  manner  may  it  nol  tuna  out  to  be  that  the  vol- 
untary sacrifice  of  the  few  in  defense  of  absolute  free- 
dom of  speech — freedom  that  is  responsible  only 
to  him  or  her  who  utters,  and  to  him  or  her  who  is 
injured  by  such  utterance — may  it  not  be  that  the  vol- 
untary sacrifice  of  a  few  at  the  coming  conflict  of 
forces  will  so  thin  out  and  so  discourage  the  hosts  of 
paternalistic  despotism  that  another  Marathon  and 
another  Salamis  will  follow  as  natural  sequences? 


The  question  as  to  whether  such  letters  as  that  of 
Dr.  O'Neill  should  be  "read  in  decent  society"  is  one 
upon  which  good  people  may  honestly  differ,  There 
are  many  good  women  and  men  who  condemn  the 
public  recital  of  murders,  highway  robberies,  bank 
robberies,  etc.,  on  the  ground  that  the}'  "deprave  the 
weak,"  the  young  and  the  viciously  inclined.  But 
where  shall  the  line  be  drawn?  When  we  undertake 
to  shield  the  young  and  the  viciously  inclined  from 
all  knowledge  of  the  evil  examples  that  are  to  be 
found  in  the  world  we  find  ourselves  balked  and  de- 
feated at  every  turn.  No  paternal  government  ever 
T»as  or  ever  will  be  strong  enough  to  carry  out  stfch  a 
design.  It  is  the  old,  old  story  of  Eve  and  the  tempter. 
The  desire  to  know  all  that  can  be  known  breaks  over 
all  barriers  and  defies  all  restraint.  It  is  the  lesson  uf 
all  time  that  the  only  safe  prevention  against  evil  ex- 


amples  is  proper  and  timely  warning — honest  and 
faithful  instruction.  The  question  then  is  pertinent, 
"How  can  a  child  be  warned  against  evil  when  his 
monitor  is  not  allowed  to  tell  in  plain  language  what 
that  evil  really  is?1'  To  speak  of  it  in  vague  and 
general  terms  is  either  no  warning  at  all  else  it  serves 
only  to  excite  a  morbid  curiosity  that  will  seek  the 
desiied  information  through  channels  that  are  destruc- 
tive to  the  health  and  life  of  the  inquirer. 

"Disgust  the  strong."  That  is  to  say,  such  plain 
spoken  revelations  of  human  depravity  shock  the  sen- 
sibilities of  the  virtuously  strong.  In  all  good  con- 
science and  kindliness  of  feeling  towards  those  who 
differ  I  would  again  ask: 

Is  it  the  fact  itself 'that  shocks  us,  or  is  it  only  the 
telling  of  the  fact? 

From  the  arguments  of  our  friendly  critics  them- 
selves I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  it  is  the  telling 
of  these  unnatural  crimes  and  vices,  rather  than  their 
acknowledged  existence  that  shocks  so  many  good 
people,  and  so  long  as  this  is  the  case  I  must 
maintain  that  our  friends  ought  to  be  shocked!  Nay 
more,  they  must  be  shocked  before  an)'  determined 
and  rational  effort  will  be  made  towards  eradicating 
these  cancer  spots  from  our  social  system. 

Changing  the  figure  of  speech  somewhat:  When 
people  are  slowly  but  surely  dying  from  breathing  air 
poisoned  with  carbonic  acid  gas,  all  they  ask  is  to  be 
let  alone.  But  what  should  and  what  would  be  thought 
of  the  on-looker  who  makes  no  effort  to  save  these 
unconscious  sleepers  for  fear  of  giving  them  an  un- 
pleasant shock?  Our  social  structure,  our  organic 
physical  life  itself,  is  permeated  with  the  poison  of 
sex-abuse  in  its  multitudinous  forms.  Shall  we  who 
know  the  facts  and  who  know  what  the  inevitable 
consequences  must  be  to  future  generations  of  women 
and  men,  to  say  nothing  of  the  miseries  inflicted  upon 
those  now  living,  shall  we  raise  no  earning  voice  for 
fear  of  shocking  the  sensibilities  of  those  who  are  as 
yet  unconscious  of  being  personally  affected  by  the 
consequences  of  sex-abuse  in  and  by  others?  If  we 
could  isolate  ourselves  from  our  fellow  mortals,  if  we 
could  shut  out  from  our  lives  all  the  effects  of  the 
moral  effluvia  that  flows  from  sex-abuse  in  and  by 
others,  there  might  be  some  excuse,  from  a  narrowly 
elfish  standpoint,  in  thus  closing  our  eyes,  stopping 


4 


up  our  ears  and  bridling  our  tongues  in  regard  to 
these  fearfully  shocking  vices  and  crimes.  But  it  so 
happeDfl  that  we  cannot  thus  isolate  our  lives  from 
the  influences  that  make  the  weal  or  woe  of  our  fel- 
low mortals.  The  life  of  the  individual  is  inseparable 
from  the  life  of  the  race.  If  the  social  life  of  the 
race  reeks  with  the  effluvia  of  moral  and  physical  cor- 
ruption we  cannot  avoid  being  more  or  less  affected 
thereby.  A  strong  effort  of  the  will  may  save  us  from 
personal  moral  and  physical  asphyxiation,  but  in  pro- 
portion as  we  live  the  broad«r,  higher,  nobler  life  of 
of  the  altruistic  humanitarian  the  more  we  must  suffer 
because  of  the  miseries  resultant  from  the  crimes  and 
vices  of  our  human  brothers  and  sisters. 

When  our  friends  admit  that  there  is  ''really  obscene 
literature,"  and  that  we  "abuse  our  rights"  when  we 
send  such  literature  through  the  mails,  they  practic- 
ally, though  unconsciously,  give  away  the  whole 
ground  in  dispute  to  the  agents  of  despotic  paternal- 
ism. On  the  contrary  Lucifer  maintains  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  obscene  literature,  in  the  technical 
and  legal  sense,  no  more  tnan  there  is,  or  should  be, 
such  a  thing  as  blasphemy  in  the  technical  and  legal 
sense,  and  therefore  it  is  impossible  "to  abuse  our 
rights"  therein;  and  this  position  is  practically  admit- 
ted by  our  correspondent  above  quoted  when  he  says 
the  "court  has  no  right  to  fine  and  imprison  you  for 
mailing  the  paper,"  no  matter  how  much  "real  ob- 
scenity" it  may  contain.  That  is  to  say  obscenity  is 
simply  a  matter  of  private  opinion  with  which  the 
courts  and  the  P.  O.  officials  have  nothing  whaterer 
to  do. 


"Convey  no  information."  Yes,  and  no.  To  the 
'•naturally  vile"  the  O'Neill  letter  conveys  no  infor- 
mation, consequently  it  does  not  hurt  them  if  it  does 
them  no  good,  but  to  hundreds  and  thousands  of  pure- 
minded  women  and  men  it  does  convey  information — 
just  the  information  needed  to  wake  them  up  as  with 
a  bugle  call,  to  a  realizing  sense  of  danger — danger  to 
the  weak  and  the  viciously  inclined,  and  danger 
through  human  solidarity,  to  the  entire  race,  preient, 
and,  especially,  future. 

"Suggests  no  remedy."  Well,  suppose  it  is  true 
that  that  individual  letter  did  not  suggest  a  remedy. 
Is  it  nothing  to  tell  of  a  real  danger  though  no  means 


o 

of  escape  be  suggested?  Is  it  nothing  to  show  that 
innocent  women  and  unborn  babes  are  being  slain  fey 
the  thousand  and  that  men  are  ignorantl y  committing 
homicide  and  suicide?  Is  it  nothing  to  call  attention 
to  the  facts  themselves  and  let  others  devise,  and, 
through  concerted  action,  inaugurate  an  affective  plan 
tor  putting  an  end  to  such  shocking  crimes  and  vioti? 

Respectfully  but  most  earnestly  would  we  eall  at- 
tention of  our  middle-ground  friends  to  the  metto  at 
the  head  of  this  current  edition  of  Lttcifir — first  page: 

"The  first  step  is  to  arouse  the  public  intelligence  to 
the  fact  of  the  dangers,  and  the  public  conscienee  to 
condemn  and  resent  the  wrongs." — W.  H.  H.  Miller, 
Attorney  General,  U.  S.  A. 

This  testimony  coming  from  such  a  source  shenld 
carry  much  weight.  It  is  a  most  emphatic  endorsement 
of  Lucifer's  constant  plea  that  the  public  conscience, 
the  public  intelligence,  is  the  real  court  of  appeal — 
the  real  tribunal  before  which  all  questions  of  mor- 
ality or  virtue  must  be  tried.  The  individual  intelli- 
gence, the  individual  conscience,  must  be  reached  and 
educated,  and  this  can  only  be  done  effectually  and 
effectively  by  means  of  the  public  pr$$8,  public  lec- 
tures, etc.,  ani  hence  we  speak  correctly  whea  we  say 
the  "public  conscience,"  the  "public  intelligenee." — 
M.  Harman,  in  Lucifer,  March  7th,  1890. 


TIIE  AMERICAN  INQUISITION. 


Its  Methods  and  Objects— The  Issue  Clearly  St* ted • 

New  Yobk,  February  28,  1880. 
Friend  Harm  an:  Nothing  can  exceed  the  meanneu 
and  vindictiveness  of  the  malignity  exhibited  in  your  last 
arrest.  The  purpose  of  it  ie  bo  apparent  that  if  the  eourt 
and  jury  can  be  made  to  exercise  any  thought  upon  the  case 
they  must  perceive  that  purpose.  If  there  were  any  honest 
intention  of  trying  any  fair  issue  in  your  case,  by  just  meth- 
ods, certainly  the  indictments,  with  their  numerous  count*, 
already  pending  against  you  would  afford  the  prosecution 
ample  chance  for  all  the  trial  they  could  wish.  This  last  ar- 
rest clearly  proves  that  the  tactics  of  the  prosecution  will 
be  to  create  a  prejudice  against  you,  rather  than  to  demon* 
strate  in  any  way  convincing  to  reason,  that  yon  have  done 
anything  wrong.  This  is  the  same  old  poliey  whieh  has 
always  obtained  in  this  class  of  cases  since  the  ease  of  D.  M. 
Bennett.  The  instigators  of  the  persecution  will  not  try  to 


6 


show  that  you  have  done  wrong,  but  they  will  go  into  court 
howling  "thie  man  has  been  arrested  so  many  times  that  he 
must  really  be  a  very  baa  man!" 

There  is  one  little  fact  about  your  arrest  that  goes 
far  to  detract  from  the  injurious  effect  your  enemies  intend- 
ed it  should  produce  upon  you.  That  fact  is  that  by  good 
lack  the  warrant  for  your  arrest  fell  into  the  hands  of  a 
marshal  rather  more  honest  than  the  generality  of  your  per- 
secutors. In  such  cases  the  marshal  is  generally  expected 
to  be  very  austere  and  to  carry  out  his  part  of  the  pretense 
that  a  great  crime  has  been  committed  and  to  feign  great 
vigilance  lest  his  prisoner  run  away,  but  Marshal  Dill ard, 
knowing  that  the  charge  against  you  was  all  a  sham,  know- 
ing your  integrity,  kuowing  that  you  could  not  be  induced 
to  run  away  from  the  false  accusations  against  you,  seems  to 
have  taken  all  the  force  out  of  this  new  persecution  by 
showing  his  entire  confidence  in  you  and  allowing  you  to 
go  on  your  parole  until  the  next  day.  Thus  by  the  honesty 
of  one  man  the  infamous  purpose  of  this  new  attack  is  to  a 
great  extent  frustrated. 

I  believe  you  have  many  friends  who  are  wise  enough  to 
understand  that  the  things  discreditable  to  a  man  are  the 
things  he  does  himself  and  that  a  peaceable,  well  conducted 
citizen  cannot  be  disgraced  by  whatever  outrage  somo  one 
else  inflicts  upon  him,  and  I  believe  those  friends  will  ap- 
prove of  your  course,  and  stand  by  you  loyally,  however  a 
few  of  the  feeble  ones  may  fall  away. 

Remember  always  that  this  is  not  a  question  of  the  good 
taste  or  bad  taste  of  what  you  have  printed,  nor  is  it  a  ques- 
tion whether  the  statements  and  theories  of  Mr.  Markland, 
Dr.' O'Neill,  Mrs.  Luce  and  others  are  trua  or  false.  It  is  a 
simple  question  whether  or  not  there  shall  be  in  this  coun 
try  entire  and  unrestrained  freedom  for  the  expression  of 
opinion  on  any  and  every  subject.  Whether  or  not  there 
shall  be  eTeoted  on  American  soil  a  corrupt,  lawless,  irre- 
sponsible censorship.    Only  this  and  nothing  more. 

Ed.  W.  Chamberlain. 


AKOTHEK  ARREST. 

Causes  and  Probable  Consequences  Thereof. 

Luoifei:  Beauty  and  health  and  virtue  are  naturally 
more  attractive  than  deformity,  disease  and  vice.  It  is 
natural  that  wa  should  be  disinclined  to  have  these 
unattractive  things  obtrude  upon  us.     Wheu  they  are  ob- 


traded  upon  us,  like  the  self-righteous  Levite  we  pass  by  on 
the  other  side,  leaving  it  to  the  heretic,  the  good  Samaritan, 
to  administer  needed  aid.  I  was  trying  to  spread  the  light, 
to  preach  the  gospel  of  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and  to  keep 
back  and  to  cover  up,  wherever  it  could  be  done,  the  re- 
pulsivene?s  which  ignorance  of  sexual  law  has  created, 
and  which  is  forcing  itself  upon  us  in  so  many  Awful  Let- 
ters. But  sexual  vice  was  too  aggressive  and  too  inhuman  to 
be  ginored.  For  the  last  throe  years,  called  out  by  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  former  arrests,  the  intolerable  position  of  woman 
under  the  marrriage  law  has  been  more  and  more  clearly  de- 
veloped. And  at  last  women  themselves  have  come  to  the  front, 
demandng  that  the  veil  shall  be  torn  aside,  and  that  they 
shall  be  freed  from  tne  domination  of  tyrannic  lust. 

Had  the  prosecution,  when  it  found  that  the  objeot  of 
the  original  publications  was  to  put  an  end  to  legalized  rape 
and  murder,  withdrawn  its  mistaken  charge,  there  would 
have  been  no  necessity  for  accumulation  of  facts.  There 
were  facts  enough,  when  legislator'a^^erB-^honest  enough  to 
heed  them.  But  the  government  maintained  its  attitude  of 
opposition,  attempting  to  discredit  the  facts  already  brought 
forward;  and  it  became  necessary,  not  only  in  self-defense 
but  also  in  the  interest  of  truth  and  justice,  to  gather  cor- 
roborating facte,  to  sustain  the  position  originally  taken.  It 
was  natural  that  physicians,  from  their  vocation,  should  be 
more  familiar  with  such  facts  than  others,  and  unless  hard- 
ened by  familiarity,  that  they  should  be  more  zealous  to 
bring  them  forward  Dr.  O'Neill,  from  his  own  knowledge 
as  well  as  from  his  professional  information,  testifies  in  the 
article  which  is  the  subject  of  the  new  arrest,  that  the  case 
quoted  in  the  Markland  letter,  instead  of  being  exceptional, 
in  not  uncommon.  Ic  is  no  longer  the  case  of  one  woman 
who  might  have  been  killed  legally,  but  was  not;  but  it  is  the 
case  of  "thousands  of  women  who  are  killed  every  year  by 
sexual  excesses  forced  upon  them."  It  is  unpleasant  to 
learn  of  a  single  case  of  such  cruelty;  it  is  horrifying  to 
know  what  multitudes  suffer  it.  The  pious  Levites  shut 
their  eyes  and  closed  their  ears;  while  the  good  {Samaritans 
in  spite  of  persecution  and  arrest,  come  to  the  rescue. 

In  another  respect  Dr.  O'Neill  has  given  facts  surpassing 
the  enormity  of  the  case  in  the  Markland  letter.  It  is  un- 
necessary for  me  to  call  attention  to  that  part  of  his  letter. 
Had  there  not  been  this  new  arrest,  the  liberal  public,  so  far 
as  they  read  it  at  all,  would  have  passed  it  by  with  a  ehud- 
der*and  in  silence,simply  strengthen  d  in  their  determination 
to  spread  the  light  which  will  put  an  end  to  such  abnormaj 


8 


practices.  It  is  the  arrest,  and  not  O'Neill  or  Harman, 
whioh  forces  such  hideous  details  before  the  unwilling  eyes 
of  tfce  public;  and  not  only  these  but  many,  many  more.  If 
such  facts  are  true,  they  demand  recognition  somewhere 
that  a  remedy  may  be  applied.  The  arrest  substantially 
denial  their  truth,  and  forces  those  who  know  similar  cor- 
roboration facts,  to  bring  them  forward.  From  my  own  in- 
stigations I  am  satisfied  that  when  the  facts  are  brought 
forward,  as  they  muet  be  if  this  persecution  continues,  the 
teufco  will  be  found  to  exceed  the  statements  of  O'Neill  as 
muth  as  his  statement!  exceed  those  of  the  Markland  letter 
upoe  the  subject  of  marital  rape.  Shall  those  who  know 
the  facts  keep  Silence  while  Harman  ie  dragged  to  prison 
for  iiftiag  his  warning  voice?  Diana. 


▲■•titer  Victim's  Sad  Story  . 

Los  Angeles,  Calif. 

IEditob  LuoiFSJt :  A  yery  dear  and  intimate  friend  of 
mine  married,  amd  was  the  mother  of  a  sweet  little  girl  whom 
J  loved  almost  equally  with  my  own  little  daughter,  and  who 
I  beli tye  loyed  "Auntie"  next  to  her  mama.  She  was  a  per- 
fect child.  I  speak  truly.  I  neyer  saw  her  wilful,  disobedi- 
emt,  ill-tempered,  or  naughty  in  any  way.  I  often  remarked 
to  her  mother:  "Ida,  do  not  expect  her  to  reach  woman* 
heed,  for  she  will  not  tarry  long  on  earth.''  I  shall  never 
forget  the  last  time  I  saw  the  child.  I  was  leaving  home  for 
B  few  weeks,  my  little  daughter  accompanying  me.  Ida 
lived  Bear  the  station,  and  we  called  at  the  door  to  say  good 
bye.  The  little  one  stood  on  the  threshold  by  her  mama's 
side,  Bot  sobbing  or  crying,  but  with  the  tears  in  her  eyes, 
amd  ob  her  pretty  cheeks. 

M  What  is  the  matter,  dear  little  Lena?  "  asked  Ruby,  my 
Uttie  girl,  thee  flye  years  of  age.  She  nearly  always  called 
her  Mdear  little  Lena"  when  speaking  to  her. 

"Auatie  and  Ruby  going  away,  never  see  Lena  any 
mere." 

*Oh  yes  darling"  I  said,  we  will  come  home  bye  and  bye." 
•Ton  not  see  Lena,"  she  answered,  very  solemnly  and 
deeideily;  and  we  did  not.    In  three  days  she  was  no  more. 

Poor  Ida  pined  and  suffered. a  severe  illness  which  nearly 
terminated  fatally,  and  shortly  after  her  recovery  she  left 
her  husband.  In  reply  to  my  question  why  she  did  this, 
she  said:  "1  have  endured  life  with  him  the  past  three  years 
for  Lena's  sake.  Now  she  is  gone  there  is  no  need  for  me  to 
be  orueille4  longer.  I  am  nearly  wrecked  and  ruined  by 
eefistant  sightly  intercourse,  which  is  often  r  epeated  in  the 


9 


morning.  This  and  nothing  else  was  the  cause  of  my  mis- 
carriage. Wealth  undreamed  of  would  not  tempt  me  to  live 
with  bim  again.  I  am  undeveloped  sexually,  never  having 
desires  in  that  direction;  still,  with  a  husband  who  had  any 
love  or  kind  feelings  for  me,  and  one  less  selfish  it  might 
have  been  different,  but  he  cared  nothing  for  the  torture  to 
me  so  long  as  he  was  gratified. 

"I  often  think  of  what  Delia  P  told  me.   How  when 

George  used  to  court  her,  and  they  sat  up  at  night,  when  she 
sat  by  his  side,  or  perhaps  in  his  lap,  and  they  kissed,  or  ca- 
ressed one  another,  she  felt  the  strongest  sexual  desire,  I 
used  to  wonder  at  the  difference  between  us.     I  have  had 

several  others  tell  me  the  same.    Mamie  H  said  she 

could  hardly  control  herself.  You  remember  how  bright, 
pretty,  well  and  strong  she  used  to  be,  and  how  her  health 
and  strength  left  her  after  her  marriage.  This  would  not 
have  occurred,  however  amative  her  husband  might  have 
been,  if  he  had  been  kind  and  careful,  but  instead,  he  played 
the  brute  the  first  night  after  their  marriage.  To  use  her 
own  expression,  'he  went  to  work  like  a  man  a  mowing,' 
and  instead  of  a  pleasure  as  it  might  have  been,  it  was  most 
intense  torture. 

"He  kept  this  up  for  a  little  less  than  a  year,  then,  as  you 
know,  she  was  laid  in  the  grave,  and  he  is  just  as  much  her 
murderer,  as  though  he  had  killed  her  in  any  other  manner." 

I  believe  that  a  strong,  healthy,  well  organized  woman 
will  have  sexual  desires,  and  if  less  so  than  man,  it  is  because 
she  is  less  active  in  the  fresh  outdoor  air.  I  was  riding  m 
the  cable  car  a  few  days  ago,  when  three  young  ladies  en- 
tered, and  sat  down  in  front  of  me.  One  of  them  though  not 
large,  was  finely  proportioned,  with  a  full  chest,  and  well 
rounded  waist.  Her  eyes  sparkled,  her  cheeks  glowed  and 
every  motion  was  replete  with  life  and  grace.  The  other 
two,  though  broader  shouldered,  were  much  smaller  at  the 
waist;  indeed  they  were  laced  to  such  an  extent  that  they 
sat  stiff  and  upright,  and  they  were  pale,  dull  eyed,  and  ap- 
peared listless  and  languished,  with  no  grace  or  poetry  of 
motion.  I  thought  to  myself,  is  it  any  wonder  if  sex  life  is 
destroyed  in  their  being?  What  kind  of  wives  and  mothers 
would  they  make?  but  how  terrible  it  would  be  to  have  it 
destroyed  by  some  horrible  brute  in  the  life  of  the  well- 
developed  one. 

There  are  men  loving,  gentle,  and  kind,  and  there  are 
men  brutes.  Sadie  Athena  Magoon. 


10 


THE  WOJIAN  QUESTION. 

NUMBER  III. 

Lucifer:  In  a  tract  issued  by  Rachel  Campbell,  I  find  a 
proposition  for  the  maintenance  of  women,  the  first  two  sec* 
lions  of  which  bear  directly  upon  the  principles  laid  down 
in  the  two  preceding  articles.  The  first  section  provides 
that  every  woman,  after  reaching  the  age  of  18  years,  shall 
be  supported  from  the  public  treasury.  The  second  section 
provides  that  every  child  shall  be  supported  from  the  pub- 
lic treasury  until  it  is  18  years  of  age.  That  is,  every  female 
is  to  be  supported  for  life,  and  every  male  until  he  is  18  years 
of  age,  from  the  public  treasury. 

The  proposition  for  the  support  of  women  from  20  to  45 
years  of  age,  in  my  last  article,  was  shown  to  require  appro- 
priations of  money  too  vast  to  be  dreamed  of  under  existing 
conditions;  and  here  is  a  proposition  requiring  still  more 
enormous  appropriations.  I  shall  assume  in  this  article- that 
it  is  right  and  just  that  some  such  provision  shall  be  made, 
if  there  is  power  to  make  it,  and  consider  the  authority  for 
making  it. 

The  general  principle  of  political  economy  has  been 
enunciatedjthat  a  man  is  entitled  to  the  product  of  his  indus- 
try. If  this  provision  for  women  and  children  is  to  be  made 
a  man  is  entitled  to  only  one  half  or  one-third  of  the  product 
of  his  industry.  But  who  is  to  determine  what  proportion 
he  shall  hold,  and  what  shall  be  done  with  the  remainder? 
Republican  governments,  instituted  primarily  for  the  pro- 
tection Of  individual  rights,  have  levied  taxes  for  various  ob- 
jects admitted  by  common  consent  to  be  for  the  common 
benefit,  the  support  of  public  schools,  the  repair  and  light- 
ing of  streets,  &c;  bat  such  taxes  have  been  so  small  in  pro- 
portion to  the  annual  product  of  industry  as  seldom  to  be 
burdensome  even  to  those  who  happened  not  to  share  in  the 
benefits.  Are  we  to  authorize  governments  to  increase  these 
taxes  60  as  to  include  more  than  half  the  entire  net  income 
of  the  country,  and  to  divide  them  according  to  their  own 
judgment?  Would  not  this  be  too  dangerous  a  power  to  en- 
trust to  ordinary  legislators,  already  known  to  be  too  easily 
bribed  to  subvert  justice  for  their  own  aggrandizement? 

I  know  of  but  one  way  in  which  these  objections  can  be 
met.  When  we  are  ready  to  form  voluntary  associations 
for  the  reorganization  of  industry,  through  such  associations 
an  equitable  division  of  the  profits  can  be  made.  If  such 
equitable  division  can  be  attained  m  no  other  way,  it  is  an 
additional  reason  why  we  should  persevere,  in  spite  of  re- 
peated failures  from  adverse  conditions,  in  the  endeavor  to 


i  L 


reorganize  society  upon  an  equitable  basis. 

But  recognizing  this  necessity,  and  the  impossibility  of 
its  immediate  development,  we  need  to  devise  whatever  tem- 
porary expedients  are  practicable,  to  check  the  downward 
course  which  must  result  from  the  failure  of  the  higher 
classes  to  do  their  share  in  the  duties  of  maternity,  leaving 
the  next  generation  to  be  largely  the  offspring  of  the  classes 
least  fit  for  maternity.  Penelope. 

HORK  OBSCENITY. 


I.ijfli I  Thrown  into  Dark  Places       a  C'oiiserratire 
Journal. 

The  latest  contribution  to  that  class  of  literature 
which  the  prurient  are  very  fond  of  calling  "obscene," 
is  made  by  no  less  profound  a  scholar  and  no  less 
elegant  gentleman  than  Mr.  Irving  Browne,  the  editor 
of  the  Albany  Law  Journal.  In  his  issue  of  March  tf, 
1890,  that  gentleman  quotes  into  an  editorial  article 
extracts  from  the  first  annual  report  of  the  New  York 
State  Commission  in  Lunacy  which  fill  over  three 
columns  of  his  paper.  These  extracts  are  descriptive 
of  the  way  in  which  New  York  treats  her  pauper  in- 
sane in  county  institutions  and  are  highly  "obscene." 
They  are  given  as  Mr.  Browne  says,  "Lest  it  should 
be  thought  that  we  exaggerate,"  when  he  says,  "hud- 
dled together  in  cramped  and  ill  ventilated  quarters, 
without  proper  water,  fire  clothing,  food,  medicines 
or  bedding,  without  suitable  opportunities  for  exer- 
cise, in  filth,  squalor  and  wretchedness,  these  misera- 
ble beiners  are  treated  with  a  shocking  disregard  of 
the  decencies  due  to  sex,  with  a  callous  indifference, 
and  even  without  an  apparent  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  they  are  unfortunate  human  beings,  deserving 
and  demanding  the  pitiful  care  of  the  community  to 
whom  God  has  given  them  in  trust." 

Of  the  extracts  from  the  report  which  Mr.  Browne 
reproduces  there  is  room  in  Lucifer's  columns  to  re- 
print only  a  very  few,  but  those  few  are  most  instruc- 
tive and  when  read  in  parallel  columns  with  the 
Markland  letter  and  the  O'Neill  letter  and  an  intelli- 
gent comparison  made  between  these  extracts  on  the 
one  hand  and  those  now  famous  letters  on  the  other 
hand  and  the  motives  for  the  publication  of  each  duly 
considered,  it  will  be  clearly  seen  either  that  the 
charge  of  obscenity  against  Lucifer  is  a  most  brutal 
outrage,  or  that  one  of  the  best  informed  and  most 


12 

learned  legal  gentlemen  of  the  state  of  New  York 
together  with  such  eminent  gentlemen  as  compose  the 
New  York  State  Commission  in  Lunacy,  are  guilty  of 
the  most  atrocious  "obscenity"  and  should  be  indicted 
and  convicted.    The  following  must  suffice: 

"Ap  examination  f-howed  that  some  beds,  and  especially  those 
of  the  disturbed  and  tilthy  patients,  were  simply  too  vile  for  descrip- 
tion. In  many  instances  the  mattresses  were  literally  reeking  with 
filth,  and  evidently  were  i.ot  dried  from  oue  day's  ead  to  another." 

•'It  is  literally  true,  however  difficult  of  belief,  that  it  is  a  com- 
mon practice  at  most  of  these  places  to  bathe  three  or  more  patieats 
in  the  same  water." 

"These  patients,  by  reason  of  lack  of  night  service,  are  put  to 
tied  and  left  to  lie  in  their  tilth  and  excrement  until  morning. "  • 

"In  one  institution,  within  a  year  or  two,  a  case  was  established 
of  intercourse  between  an  idiot  woman  and  an  insane  man,  which 
resulted  in  the  birth  of  a  child.'' 

"The  floor  was  wet  and  otherwise  soiled  with  excrement,  the 
odor  from  which  was  exceedingly  offensive.  Infactitsuielled  more 
1  i  ke  a  privy  vault  than  a  place  for  the  confinement  of  a  human  being." 

"The  beds  in  these  rooms  were  examined  and  presented  a  most 
shocking  appearance.  The  ticks  were  only  partly  filled  with  straw 
and  the  bedding  was  saturated  and  discolored  by  human  filth.  The 
odor  from  the  beds  was  extremely  offensive,  penetrating  the  whole 
building." 

"She  was  bare-footed  and  evidently  had  nothing  on  her  person 
except  a  blue  cotton  skirl  and  a  man's  coat." 
Caetera  paribus  absutit. 


Mr.  Irving  Browne  justifies  the  publication  of  so 
much  ''obscenity"  in  the  following  ringing  language: 

"This  is  ii  shocking,  even  a  disgusting  recital.  But  it 
ought  to  be  read  more  extensively  tnan  it  ever  will  be  in  the 
pages  of  a  public  document,  and  we  spread  the  painful  de- 
tails before  our  readers  in  tbe  hope  that  some  one  will  be 
stirred  to  activity  in  the  endeavor  to  ameliorate  the  condi- 
tion of  these  unfortunate  beings.  Wnile  the  people  are 
building  a  capitol  at  a  cost  of  twenty  millions,  and  are  pro- 
posing to  pay  fifteen  millions  for  the  privilege  of  holding  a 
fair  in  the  city  of  New  York,  it  will  be  a  wholesome  lesson 
to  legislators  and  to  the  community  to  behold  the  rottenness 
under  the  goodly  outside  of  our  social  fabric,  to  be  reminded 
how  they  live  for  show  and  rivalry  and  luxury,  and  how  ' 
neglectful  and  callous  they  are  to  human  suffering.  We  ore 
tender  of  our  criminals  in  comparison;  we  give  them  whole- 
some food,  sufficient  clotning,  and  keep  them  moderately 
clean;  we  compel  them  to  go  to  church,  and  we  furnish  them 
with  good  reading.  If  any  of  them  have  deserved  death, 
after  loading  them  down  with  tiowers,  we  go  about  to  invent 
some  painless  and  speedy  method  of  taking  them  off.  But 
for  these  poor  distracted  creatures,  who  have  committed  no 
crime,  we  have  nothing  better  to  offer  than  this  report  dis- 
closes. We  are  glad  to  learn  that  a  bill  has  been  introduced 
in  both  houses  of  the  legislature  to  close  these  chambers 
of  horrors  and  put  their  inmates  under  the  care  of  the  stats. 


13 


It  ought  to  pass  at  once,  so  that  this  burning  disgrace  may 
be  wiped  away.  And  until  this  is  done  we  had  bBtter  dis- 
pense with  grand  staircabes  and  other  senseless  displays  of 
selfish  wealth  and  unfeeling  power.". 

Here  is  a  state  of  aftairs  which  is  the  direct  out- 
come, the  necessary  and  inevitable  result,  of  that  kind 
of  "morality"  which  is  prosecuting  Lucifer  for 
"obscenity."  Shall  Lucifer's  editor  be  put  into  a 
prison  little  better  than  the  places  described  in  the 
above  extracts  and  Mr.  Irving  Browne  and  the  gen- 
tlemen of  the  Lunacy  Commission  of  the  State  of 
Xew  York  go  free?  Will  those  who  justify  the  per- 
secution of  Ltjcipeh  on  the  grounds  of  taste  please 
state  why  the  editor  of  the  Albany  Law  Journal  and 
the  Lunacy  Commission  should  not  be  likewise  pros- 
ecuted? 


The  unprejudiced  reader  will  observe  that  the  ar- 
guments used  by  the  conservative  editor  of  the  Law 
Journal  in  defending  the  exposures  published  by  him, 
are  almost  identical  with  those  advanced  by  us  in 
justification  of  the  exposures  made  by  Dr.  O'Neill, 
W.  G.  Markland,  C.  C.  Luce,  Dagmar  Manager  and 
others.  Whether  the  parallel  of  cases  thus  fairly 
instituted  will  have  any  weight  with  our  prosecutors 
and  with  court  and  jury  at  the  trial  next  month,  re- 
mains to  be  seen. 

Will  our  paternal  rulers  (Anthony  Comstock, Wan- 
amaker  &  Co.)  reenact  the  fable  of  the  lawyer  and 
the  farmer,  in  which  story  the  verdict  depended  alto- 
gether upon  the  question  as  to  whose  bull  it  was  that 
had  done  the  goring? 

The  O'Neill  Letter  Vindicated  and  Duplicated  . 

[Of  the  writer  of  the  following  l~tter  I  have  no  personal 
knowledge,  but  of  her  entire  reliability  I  am  assured  by  one 
of  Lucifer's  oldest  and  firmest  friends,  and  hence  I  feel  no 
hesitation  in  giving  publicity  to  her  statements  of  what 
she  believes  to  be  matters  of  fact. — Editor  Lucifer.] 

Dear  Friend  and  Brother:  I  have  felt  so  keenly  for 
you  in  this  last  trouble  that  I  cannot  forbear  writing  you  a 
few  lines,  hoping  thereby  to  give  you  some  assurance  that 
you  are  not  altogether  deserted  in  this  case.  That  you  have 
done  what  is  right  in  publishing  the  O'Neill  letter,  there  is 
no  doubt  in  my  mind,  but  that  you  should  be  arrested  for  it 
is  an  outrage.  It  contains  as  much  truth  as  the  Markland 
letter,  the  trouble  is  that  the  truth  which  it  does  contain  is 
less  generally  kno  w n,  and  the  practice  which  it  exposes  is 


not  sanctioned  by  law  as  the  Markland  praotioes  are. 
So  I  presume,  it  is  considered  a  greater  crime  in  you  to  pub- 
lish it.  An  acquaintance  of  mine  who  lived  in  Kanaas  City 
atone  time,  assured  me  that  "Suckers"  were  as  common  as 
prostitutes  there,  that  they  charged  a  quarter  for  the  act, 
and  that  women  who  had  become  so  diseased  that  they  were 
not  safe  for  men  to  use  resorted  to  the  practice  for  a  living. 
That  men  preferred  it  to  going  to  a  prostitute.  An  intimate 
friend  of  mine  told  me  her  husband  insisted  on  having  her 
go  through  the  performance  for  him,  but  she  always  re- 
fused, though  she  granted  him  every  other  outrage  he  chose 
to  perpetrate.  She  drew  the  line  at  this  point,  and  refused 
absolutely.  He  gave  her  eeveral  beatings  for  refusing,  but 
she  persisted.  When  her  second  child  was  less  than  three 
weeks  old  he  demanded  of  her  this  outrage.  She  refused 
and  he  dragged  her  out  of  bed,  kicked,  choked,  pinched 
and  bit  her,  and  then  left  her  lying  on  the  floor  unconscious. 
Her  nurse  came  in  and  found  her  there.  Her  life  was  des- 
paired of,  but  she  recovered  far  enough  to  leave  the  house 
and  go  to  her  aunt,  and  tell  the  story  of  her  wrongs.  The 
aunt,  a  Christian  bigot,  told  her  she  must  go  back,  and  do 
as  her  husband  required  her  to  do,  but  the  poor  woman 
braved  all  that  a  young  woman  ignora  nt  of  the  ways  of  the 
world  mast  brave  under  such  a  decision  as  she  made,  and 
would  not  go  back.  She  was  divorced  when  I  knew  her,  but 
broken  in  health,  despised  by  her  relatives,  snd  making  her 
way  in  life  as  best  she  could.  So  long  as  these  revolting, 
disgusting,  horrible  things  are,  they  may  as  well  be  made 
known,  that  they  may  be  done  away  with.  The  fact  that 
they  do  exist  is  enough  to  make  any  person  havinp  any 
humanity  in  them, struggle  to  enlighten  the  race  on  the  right 
use  of  sex.  That  those  who  do  strive  for  sex  enlightenment 
are  far  in  advance  of  the  times  is  evidenced  by  their  being 
consigned  to  a  prison  as  their  reward.  You  will  be  better 
appreciated  in  a  hundred  years  from  now. 

T  have  felt  tempted  to  add  my  mite  to  the  appeals,  and 
the  accounts  of  outrages  suffered  by  women,  even 
though  there  are  so  many  who  are  doing  the  work  so 
much  better  than  I  could  hope  to  do.  *  *  *  *  But 
I  am  with  you  in  this  fight  for  a  better  sex  life,  heart 
and  hand.  I  have  bee  n  on  the  unpopular  side  of  the  sub- 
ject all  my  life,  and  have  been  proscribed,  and  ostracised  by 
friends  and  relatives,  but  the  assurance  that  1  have  been  on 
the  side  of  Justice  has  sustained  me.  And  I  have  not  been 
entirely  without  sympathetic  friends  at  any  time. 


]  5 


I  have  your  photo— thankB  to  the  kindness  of  a  friend, 
and  by  it  I  see  what  a  sensitive,  generous  nature  you  have, 
and  how  great  a  capacity  you  have  for  sufferirg  from  being 
misunderstood.  I  regret  very  much  that  you  are  called  upon 
to  suffer  for  doing  what  you  conceive  to  be  right,  and  what 
the  world  must  some  time  come  to  see  is  right.  You  have 
my  sincere  sympathy,  and  I  trust  you  will  be  able  to  bear 
up  bravely  under  this  extra  tax  upon  your  strength  and 
health.  There  are  true  hearts  that  are  with  you  iu  all  your 
noble  work,  and  whose  kindly  thoughts  are  wafted  to  you 
hourly.  Don't  think  you  are  forsaken,  even  though  a  few 
frail  friends  fly  from  you  when  you  grow  ahead  of  their  ca- 
pacity to  grow.  I  like  to  think  that  there  is  a  law  of  com* 
pensation  in  nature,  and  that  there  will  come  a  time  when 
all  good  work  will  be  appreciated.  If  not  in  our  time  there 
are  generations  yet  to  come  that  will  bless  the  memory  of 
Mosea  Harman. 

If  there  is  anything  in  this  that  you  want  to  publish, 
you  are  at  liberty  to  do  so,  but  for  the  reason  giveu  already, 
please  do  not  give  the  name.  With  a  heart  f  nil  of  sympathy, 
and  with  a  fervent  Bless  You,  I  am  sincerely  yours  for  all 
good  work,   


A  QUESTION  OF  JUDICIAL,  INTEGRITY. 

The  last  assault  upon  the  editor  of  Lucifer  seems  to  in- 
dicate that  after  three  years  of  cowardly  braggadocio  the 
obscenists  intend  to  brace  themselves  up  for  trial  at  the 
coming  term.  Whether  the  trial  comes  off  or  not,  it  stands 
Lucifer  in  hand  to  state  its  case  so  clearly  that  the  misrep- 
resentations of  its  persecutors  may  be  ineffectual,  even 
though  those  misrepresentations  should  receive  the  ap- 
proval of  the  court  as  expressed  in  an  adverse  judgment. 
The  threatened  trial  if  it  ever  takes  place,  will  be  more  like 
the  trials  for  witchcraft  that  were  had  in  early  New  Eng- 
land times  than  like  judicial  proceeding  appropriate  to  our 
day.  It  cannot  be  otherwise.  In  such  cases  it  is  always  the 
judge  and  not  the  victim  who  is  on  trial,  and  I  apprehend 
that  the  reason  why  Lucifer's  persecutors  have  delayed  for 
so  long  to  place  Judge  Foster  on  trial  is  that  he  showed  so 
much  honesty  in  deciding  as  he  did,  in  31  Fed  Rep.  872,  that 
when  a  trial  is  to  take  place  there  should  be  something  to  be 
tried. 

The  decisions  in  cases  under  the  blackmail  law  are  so 
confused,  so  contradictory,  and  so  eccentric  that  each  case 
reflects  the  individual  character  of  the  judge  who  tries  it 
and  holds  that  up  into  prominence,  while  the  offense  real  or 
pretended  of  the  defendant  is  lost  sight  of  in  the  general 
maze.  Irreconcilable  decisions  have  been  rendered  under 
this  law,  the  only  effect  of  which  is  to  display  the  judges  in 
various  favorable  or  unfavorable  lights  according  as  they 


16 


have  been  true  or  false  to  the  obligations  of  their  judicial 
office.  Oppos  ing  decisions  have  been  rendered  on  the  very 
simple  questi  ons  as  to  whether  it  was  necessary  to  set  out 
the  matter  in  the  indictment,  as  to  whether  it  was  necessary 
to  allege  "scienter,''  as  to  whether  the  law  applied  to  letters 
or  not,  &o.,  (fee  &c.  A  very  iobtructive  case  and  one  in 
which  the  judge  shows  a  high  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  his 
office  is  U.  S.  vs.  Huggett,  tried  July  1,  1889,  in  the  Circuit 
court  of  the  Northern  District  of  Ohio  and  reported  in  40 
Fed.  Kep.  630.  Judge  Hammond  in  this  case  does  not  snivel 
and  wiggle  and  shirk  the  issue  as  many  Judges  have  done 
in  these  cases.  He  decides  the  question  that  is  before  him 
to  decide,  not  in  the  broadest  way  possible,  it  is  true,  but 
with  a  manliness  and  independence  which  compared  with 
the  efforts  of  some  judges  to  make  capital  for  themselves 
out  of  the  conviction  of  an  innocent  victim,  entitles  him  to 
commendation.  Speaking  of  the  confusion  to  which  I  have 
alluded  Judge  Hammond  says: 

"Strictly  and  technically  none  of  the  decisions  by  any  ot 
the  judges  are  of  authority,  and  in  the  circuit  I  take  it  all 
the  judges  stand  alike  in  this  matter,  supposed  distinctions 
in  rank  not  adding  anything  to  the  authoritative  ef- 
fect of  judgment  or  opiuions.  Whichever  judge  holds  the 
circuit  court,  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  court,  aud  can  be  no 
more  or  less  authoritative  because  of  these  distinctions.  It 
would  be  intolerable  if  it  were  otherwise,  Uufortunately, 
owing  to  our  very  absurd  judicial  system  it  seems  quite 
impossible  to  introduce  into  it  the  rule  of  stare  decisis,  as 
between  the  different  circuits  and  in  the  courts  inferior  to  the 
supreme  court,  the  decisions  of  that  tribunal  aloue  being 
biuding  as  authority  up>n  all.  If  the  first  judicial  decision 
of  tnis  question  had  been  followed  as  a  precedent,  there 
would  have  been  no  conflict  of  authority,  and  "letters" 
would  have  been  excluded  from  the  operation  of  this  act. 
But  Judge  Deady's  careful  judgment  was  by  him  all  too 
graciously,  perhaps,  made  to  yield  to  mere  statements  that 
other  judges  in  his  circuit  thought  differently,  and  without 
any  published  opinious  from  them.  Other  courts  felt  at  lib 
erty  to  disregard  the  first  precedent,  and  so  we  have  them 
all  acting  independently  in  judgment.  This  may  be  de- 
plorable, but  it  is  inevitable,  unless  all  will  yi^ld  to  the  first 
careful  and  intelligent  decision  as  a  precedent,  strictly  con- 
sidered." 

Judge  Hammond  then  proceeds  to  quash  the  indictment 
before  him,  which  after  all  is  the  only  thing  an  honest  judge 
could  possibly  have  done,  for  the  reading  of  the  law  of  1876 
as  to  "letters"  is  plain  enough.  But  a  list  of  opposing 
cases  upon  this  point,  whether  the  law  of  1876  applies  to 
letters  or  not,  which  list  is  given  by  Judge  Hammond  in  f  ur.» 
will  be  instructive. 

The  law  was  held  to  include  "letters"  in  U.  S.  vs.  Gay- 


IT 


lord  17  Fed.  Rep.  438,  U.  S.  vs.  Hanover  Id.  444,  U.  S.  vs. 
Bntton  Id  731,  U.  S.  vs.  Morris  18  Fed.  Rep.  900,  vs.  Thomas 
27  Fed.  Kep.  682. 

The  law  was  held  not  to  apply  to  "letters"  m  U.  S.  vs. 
Williams  3  Fed.  Rep.  484,  U.  S.  vs.  Lof  tis  12  Fed.  Rep.  671 
U.  S.  vs.  Comerford  25  Fed.  Rep.  902  and  U.  S.  Mathias  3G 
Fed.  Kep.  892. 

Some  of  these  efforts  to  bnog  private  correspondence 
within  the  operation  of  this  infamous  law  are  very  strained 
and  show  a  very  great  prej  udice  and  a  very  great  degree 
of  mental  impurity  on  the  part  of  the  judges  who  make 
them,  but  they  are  too  voluminous  to  be  any  more  than  re- 
ferred to  in  an  ordinary  article  like  this. 

It  would  not  be  proper  however,  to  close  this  article 
without  inserting  the  thundering  protest  against  all  this 
abomination,  made  by  J udge  Turner  in  U.  S.  vs.  Commer- 
ford,  tried  November  1885  in  the  District  Court  of  the 
Western  District  of  Texas.  If  there  had  been  more  judgen 
of  the  oharacter  and  integrity  of  Judge  Turner  there  would 
have  been  fewer  silly  decisions  upon  this  rascally  law  and 
the  law  itself  would  long  ago  have  had  its  quietus.  Judge 
Turner  says: 

"We  have  been  taught  to  believe  that  it  was  the  great- 
est injustice  towards  the  common  people  of  eld  Rome  when 
the  laws  they  were  commanded  to  obey,under  Caligula,  were 
written  in  small  characters,  and  hung  upon  high  pillars, 
thus  more  effectually  to  ensnare  the  people.  How  much 
advantage  may  we  justly  claim  over  the  old  Roman,  if  our 
oriminal  laws  are  so  obscurely  written  that  one  cannot  tell 
when  he  is  violating  them?  If  the  rule  con  tended  for  here 
is  to  be  applied  to  the  defendant,  he  will  be  put  upon  trial 
for  an  act  which  he  could  not  by  perusing  the  law  have  as- 
certained was  an  offense.  My  own  sense  of  justice  revolts 
at  the  idea.  It  is  not  in  keeping  with  the  genius  of  our  in- 
stitutions, and  I  cannot  give  it  my  sanction.'* 

Here  was  a  test  of  the  integrity  of  the  judge.  Judge 
Turner  stood  that  test  splendidly.  If  Lucifer's  case  is 
ever  tried  I  hope  it  will  be  before  a  judge  as  capable  of 
standing  such  a  test  as  Judge  Turner  was.  It  is,  after  all 
merely  a  question  of  judicial  integrity.  It  is  ridiculous  that 
on  such  a  question  one-half  of  the  decisions  should  be  one 
way  and  the  other  half  just  the  opposite  way,  and  I  say 
without  hesitation  that  in  these  cases  where  the  decisions 
haye  stretched  the  law  to  embrace  private  letters  the  judges 
•o  deciding  have  very  clearly  demonstrated  their  lack  of 
moral  character,  patriotism  and  integrity. 

1£d.  W.  Chambeblain, 


!  8 


TIIE  WOllAN  <H  ESTIO  V 

NUMBER  IV. 

Lucifer:  If  it  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to 
provide  for  the  support  .  of  women  and  children* 
and  if  it  is  impossible  for  the  government  fco  per- 
form that  duty,  as  it  certainly  is  to-day  and  is  likely 
to  be  for  many  years,  soais  other  provision  must  be 
made.  Or  if  such  a  power  is  necessarily  too  dangerous  to 
be  delegated  to  a  government,  some  other  provision  must  be 
made.  Who  has  the  right  to  determine  for  the  husband  or 
father  ffhat  that  provision  shall  be?  Such  an  interference 
with  its  control  over  the  products  of  his  own  industry,  is 
but  one  step  removed  from  the  plan  of  taxation  to  the  same 
i  rfcent. 

Another  theory,  whioh  has  the  two  great  merits  of  not 
interfering  with  private  rights  of  property , and  of  being  imme- 
diately applicable,  is  this: 

Every  person  is  morally  bound  to  pay  for  his  support. 
If  he  is  unable  to  pay  for  it  at  the  time,  it  is  a  continuing 
obligation.  A  child  is  unable  to  pay  for  his  support  for  a 
period  of  years.  He  is  therefore  indebted,  when  he  becomes 
capable  of  self-support,  for  what  has  been  reasonably  ex- 
pended upon  him  up  to  that  time.  By  this  theory  the 
mother  is  relieved  from  the  burden  of  supporting  her  chil- 
dren; since  they  will  repay  all  the  cost.  She  has  only  her- 
self to  support.  But  the  cost  of  support  properly  includes 
compensation  for  the  time  and  care  bestowed,  and  this  is  a 
part  of  the  indebtedness.  A  mother,  then,  m  virtue  of  her 
being  a  mother,  has  an  occupation  giving  her  compensation 
for  all  the  disabilities  connected  with  it.  The  whole  burden 
of  the  maintenance  of  women,  is  by  this  theory  thrown  upon 
the  shoulders  of  those  who  are  to  reap  the  benefit,  the  chil- 
dren of  the  next  generation.  Under  this  theory  there  is  no 
occasion  for  special  pecuniary  provision  for  mothere.  The 
adoption  of  this  theory  eaves  the  nation  the  taxation  of 
thousands  of  millions  of  dollars  per  annum,  which  would 
otherwise  be  necessary  to  do  justice  to  woman. 

This  is  more  easily  said  than  done.  There  are  serious 
difficulties  in  the  way;  and  the  community  must  overcome 
those  difficulties  before  this  theory  can  be  put  in  successful 
operation.  The  statement  of  some  of  the  greater  of  these 
difficulties,  and  of  the  modes  by  which  they  can  be  more  or 
less  effectively  met.  will  tend  to  prepare  the  way  for  making 
the  trial. 

Before  undertaking  to  consider  these  questions,  I  will 


say  that  I  do  not  consider  this  plan  in  any  way  antagonistic 
but  only  supplementary  to  the  plans  heretofore  proposed. 
The  other  plans  require  extensive  co-operation  before  any- 
thing practical  can  be  accomplished.  This  plan  can  be  tried 
m  individual  families,  with  more  or  less  effect;  and  just  so 
far  as  it  is  tried,  it  will  tend  either  to  accomplish  the  result 
of  securing  freedom  and  independence  to  the  parties  con- 
cerned, or  to  develop  such  modifications  of  the  plan  as  may 
be  necessary  to  ensure  success.  Iu  the  meantime,  the  broader 
work  of  securing  freedom  and  independence  to  all  women 
by  a  complete  reorganization  of  industry,  need  not  be  neg- 
lected. Penelope. 

THE  WOMAN  QUESTION. 

NUMBER  V. 

The  plan  promised  in  my  last  commuuicatiou,  that  every 
person  should  pay  his  own  way,  would  make  ample  provis- 
ion for  women,  if  the  difficulties  could  be  removed  out  of 
the  way.  If  the  time  and  labor  necessary  to  prepare  a 
woman  for  maternity,  were  to  be  as  fully  compensated  as  the 
time  and  labor  necessary  to  prepare  a  man  for  a  profession, 
all  the  arguments  for  a  special  provision  for  woman  in  con- 
sequence of  her  sex,  would  fall  to  the  ground. 

These  difficulties  are  formidable.  Some  of  them  can 
be  removed;  if  others  are  at  present  insuperable,  it  will  di- 
minish without  destroying  the  efficiency  of  the  plan;  and  it  is 
only  by  bringing  them  clearly  to  view  that  we  can  learn  how 
to  deal  with  them.   I  will  mention  some  of  the  greatest. 

1.  One-half  the  children  will  die  before  they  become  ca- 
pable of  repaying  the  debt. 

Life  Insurance  companies  should  insure  the  lives  of 
children  from  their  birth,  and  perhaps  before;  and  the  cost 
of  the  insurance  will  be  a  part  of  the  expense  to  be  repaid. 
There  will  be  no  difficulty  iu  obtaining  such  insurance  when 
there  is  a  general  demand  for  it;  the  only  question  to  the 
companies  will  be  the  ability  of  the  mother  to  pay  the  pre- 
miums; and  tho  questions  to  the  mother  will  be  her  ability, 
and  her  risk  in  effecting  such  insurance  from  considerations 
to  be  presently  considered. 

2.  One-half  the  children  will  be  girls. 

This  is  only  a  temporary  objection;  for  although  at  pres- 
ent the  girls  could  not  be  depended  upon  to  be  able  to  re- 
fund their  support,  yet  if  the  principle  were  thoroughly  es- 
tablished and  in  general  operatiou,they  would  be  as  well  able 
to  do  so  as  boys. 

3.  Some  of  the  children  will  never  be  able  to  pay  the 
debt. 


20 


Any  man  capable  of  supporting  a  wife,  can  repay  his 
own  support  when  relieved  of  the  support  of  his  wife.  So 
that  in  practice  the  mcapables  will  be  only  those  whom  al- 
ready the  nation  supports.  Where  such  inability  is  without 
fault  of  the  mother,  it  would  be  no  greater  burden  upon  the 
community  than  it  now  sustains,  if  it  should  reimburse  the 
mother  for  at  least  her  necessary  expenditures.  The  taxa- 
tion might  be  a  little  greater,  but  on  the  other  hand  a  por- 
tion of  the  community  would  be  relieved  from  an  unjust 
burden. 

\.    borne  of  the  children  will  repudiate^the  debt. 

{So  far  as  such  failure  results  from  improper  education, 
the  mother  deserves  to  lose  the  amount.  But  public  senti- 
ment may  make  it  a  disgrace  for  a  child  not  to  repay,  and 
the  law  may  enforce  this  indebtedness  as  it  does  other  in- 
debtedness. In  the  case  of  parents  whose  accumulations 
will  be  bequeathed  to  their  children,  this  objection  has  no 
weight;  but  the  danger  of  children  robbing  their  mothers  of 
their  support,  while  society  makes  it  customary  for  un- 
married women  and  even  young  men  to  live  with  their  pa- 
rents without  paying  for  their  support,  is  very  great.  We 
have  insurance  companies  that  will  insure  against  the  dis- 
honesty of  employes;  but  until  it  becomes  a  disgrace  for 
either  boy  or  girl  to  depend  upon  parents  for  support  after 
ceasing  to  be  children,  this  universal  want  of  honesty  will 
stand  in  the  way  of  woman's  liberation. 

5.  It  will  be  difficult  to  determine  the  amount  of  the 
indebtedness. 

This  may  be  determined  by  legislation,  with  due  regard 
to  the  varieties  of  circumstances.  It  would  then  be  optional 
for  the  mother  to  increase  the  expf nditure  at  her  own  risk 
if  she  thought  beat.  The  want  of  such  legislation,  arbitrat- 
ing between  mother  and  children,  will  add  much  to  the  dan- 
ger and  the  difficulty  spoken  of  in  the  last  paragraph, 

0.   The  payments  will  come  too  late  to  be  available. 

If  the  preceding  objections  could  be  removed,  there 
would  be  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  loans  from  insurance 
companies  upon  the  security  of  their  own  policies.  Until 
such  insurance  companies  exist,  this  objection  will  be 
often  fatal. 

7.  The  indebtedness  will  be  a  heavy  burden  upon  the 
young,  and  will  have  a  depressing  influence. 

A  debt  which  is  paid  by  a  sinking  fund  imposes  no  other 
burden  than  the  annual  payment;  and  the  universality  of 
the  plan  would  remove  the  depressing  influence.   A  burden 


21 


does  not  depend  upon  the  nominal  indebtedness,  but  upom 
the  actual  amount  that  must  be  paid;  and  the  amount  of 
actual  expenditure  is  not  increased  by  the  form  of  the  in- 
debtedness. The  difficulty  is  in  the  adjustment  of  commer- 
cial relations  to  the  new  plan,  and  not  in  any  increased  ex- 
penditure or  cost. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  one  great  want  in 
the  adoption  of  the  proposed  plan,  is  the  establishment  of 
insurance  companies  to  take  the  risks  attending  it,  for  a 
reasonable  compensation.  Just  as  soon  as  the  public  ac- 
cept the  plan  as  just  and  equitable,  the  way  will  be  open  for 
the  accumulations  of  wealth  to  intervene  and  establish 
such  insurance  companies.  The  cost  of  the  policies  may  at 
first  seem  exorbitant.  Men  of  wealth,  convinced  of  its 
desirability,  will  endow  such  institutions,  and  enable  them 
to  reduce  the  charge.  The  risks  will  continually  diminish; 
and  the  growing  wealth  of  the  community  will  of  itself  con- 
tinually lessen  the  burdens  of  coming  generations. 

In  view  of  these  considerations,  the  plan  outlined  in  my 
last  article,  seems  to  me  the  earliest  and  most  practicable 
solution  of  the  Woman  Question.  Penelope. 


»Sj  in  pa tli 3  .  Expose  and  Query. 

Vineland,  N.  J.,  March  7, 1890. 
It  is  sickening  to  learn  another  inquisitorial  raok  is 
hinged  to  good  brother  Harrnan's  head,  though  hoped  it* 
fangs  may  not  reach  his  heart.  It  is  not  a  surprise  to 
those  who  know  the  warring  nature  religion  has  ever  shown 
—its  tortures  will  be  expected  to  fall  on  laborers  for  justice 
till  we  pass  the  test  ordeal  of  pagan  strife  for  the  control  of 
this  nation — and  they  will  not  wholly  cease  till  woman's 
education  in  health  and  sociology  gains  control  of  all  of  her 
personalities.  Suffrage  claims  are  small  compared  with 
social  rights. 

I  want  to  express  warm  thanks  to  those,  especially  the 
women,  who  have  recently  so  well  sustained  Lucifer  and  its 
editor  in  resisting  the  powers  that  seek  to  suppress  and  stifle 
its  workers  and  influence.  May  they  continue  tireless  and 
fearless,  and  call  out  hundreds  more  to  speak  and  demand 
in  their  own  and  the  whole  sisterhood's  behalf.  Nearly  all 
women  could  tell  revolting  tales  of  hidden  cruelties  akin  to 
those  for  which  persecutions  are  prolonged.  Of  the  terri- 
blcs,  I  think  sex  disease  worse  than  rape.  Combined  they 
are  most  flagrant  murders,  yet  common.  Some  women  rebel 
and  leave  the  liability  after  too  late  for  safety,  and  evermore 


are  supposed  to  be  "rheumatic"  subjects.  That  sort  of 
rheum  is  more  prevalent  than  suspected.  Cities  and  vil- 
lages conceal  appalling  conditions  that  are  "unutterable 
tilth"  never  sent  in  newspapers  to  squeamish  ignorano  e. 

An  elderly  lady  has  had  a  grum,  husky  voice  since  an 
early  marriage-contracted  disease  operated  mainly  in  the 
throat.  JLeaving  the  husband,  treating  promptly,  and  good 
health  favoring,  healing  was  apparent;  but  her  fine  voice,  in 
eong  like  a  silver  lute,  sang  no  more,  gave  no  clear  tone. 

I  once  stopped  a  while  in  a  proud  aristocratic  village 
where  6ome  rich  men's  wives  had  secreted  their  husbands' 
vices  until  misery  impelled  disclosures.  Some  were  almost 
blind,  the  eyes  being  a  center  of  virus  action ;  some  had 
spotted  countenanoe,  some  swelled  glands,  all  wretched.  A 
few  would  have  lied  to  their  relatives  but  for  lack  of  travel 
money;  though  they  had  brought  thousands  to  the  firm, 
they  were  allowed  only  their  clothing  and  caie  of  a  house, 
not  a  home.  Common  cases.  They  averred  that  the  last 
dozen  women  buried  there,  died  of  "unutterable"  ills. 

A  doctor's  wife  said  if  her  daughters  married  they  must 
accept  young  men  their  father  had  vainly  tried  to  cure; 
whose  blood  would  taint  with  all  forms  of  consumption  the 
coming  ages.  But  the  sad  mother's  lips  are  closed  to  the 
public,  for  medical  codes  close  physicians'  mouths  with 
air  tight  secreoy  on  confidential  cases;  thus  they  help  up- 
hold horrid  systems  of  oppression,  and  become  cyclopedias 
of  concealed  outrages. 

I  hope  Dr.  O'Neill's  forced  breathing  crevice  will  lift 
the  lip-seals  and  show  all  men  that  the  medical  atonement, 
promising  to  exempt  from  penalties,  is  almost  as  impo 
t6nt  in  skill  as  fabled  saviors',  ancieut  and  modern. 

Is  such  common  life  civilization? —farther  still,  is  it  en- 
lightenment? Church  darkness  seems  a  truer  definition, 
Christian  Respectability,  generally  accepted,  perhaps  truer 
still.  Allowing  the  truth  and  hoerty  loving,  and  humanely 
laboring  portion  to  be  subtracted,  let  the  accepted  one 
stand,  it  is  on  a  par  with  its  greedy,  sordid  and  cruel  reli- 
gion, if  at  all  separate.  To  perpetuate  its  like  is  the  worst 
that  can  befall  man's  real  happiness,  but  to  do  so,  men  wage 
war  to  the  death,  and  determine  on  woman 's  subjection  to 
insure  easy  supplies.  M.  E.  Tillottson. 


NOTES  ANT>  COMMENTS. 

The  Advocate  (Topeka,  Kan,)  is  quite  right  in  saying  that 
it  is  the  "province  of  mothers  to  give  instruction 
to    her     daughters,    and    the     father    [and  mother, 


2.°> 

too,J  to  the  sons,"  and  this  reason,  if  no  other, 
justifies  the  publication  of  such  terrible  facts  as  those  given 
m  the  O'  Neill  and  Markland  letters,  in  order  that  careless 
and  ignorant  mothers  and  fathers  may  be  roused  to  a  sense 
of  the  necessity  of  giving  their  children  proper  instruction 
on  the  vitally  important  subject  of  sex.  As  a  rule  the  pa- 
rents themselves  are  deplorably  ignorant  in  regard  to  the 
dangers  that  beset  the  young  and  inexperienced. 


As  to  whether  these  proscribed  letters  are  "calculated  to 
debauch  rather  than  refine  and  cultivate  the  intellect  and 
the  understanding,"  is  a  matter  of  opinion  upon  which  the 
"  best  people"  honestly  differ.  That  the  facts  related  therein 
are  shocking — distressingly  so,  is  readily  conoeded  and  is 
an  argument  in  favor  of  their  publication  instead  of  their 
concealment.  Whether  these  facts  are  told  in  a  way  "calcu- 
lated to  debauch,"  etc.,  is  a  question  that  each  editor  and 
publisher  must  determine  for  himself.  I,  for  one,  do  not 
think  them  open  to  that  objection. 

Whether  Lucifer  is  an  "exponent  of  the  literature  of 
the  slums  of  society"  could  perhaps  be  best  decided  by  an 
inhabitant  of  those  malodorous  precincts  known  as  slums. 
Unfortunately,  or  fortunately  as  the  case  may  be,  I  have 
but  little  knowledge  as  to  what  the  literature  of  the  slums 
may  mean,  but  se  far  as  I  have  any  such  knowledge,  Lucfer 
is  not  now  and  never  has  been  an  exponent  of  that  class  of 
literature.  I  would  like,  however,  at  this  place  in  few 
words  to  say  that  language,  i.  e.,  literature,  is  good  or  bad 
according  to  the  use  to  which  it  is  put.  With  this  view  I 
claim  the  right  to  use  the  literature,  the  vocabulary,  of  the 
slums,  if  there  be  such  vocabulary,  in  order  the  better  to  de- 
scribe the  evils,  the  abuses,  the  peryersions  that  prevail,  as 
we  are  led  to  believe,  m  places  commonly  known  as  slums. 


It  may  be  a  mark  of  senility  or  worse,  on  my  part,  but 
to  me  it  seems  simply  amazing  that  those  two  usually  clear- 
headed thinkers  and  brave  defenders  of  the  right  of  free 
expression,  E.  M.  and  George  Macdonald,  should  condemn 
in  the  strongest  terms  the  manner  in  which  Dr.  O'Neill  un- 
veils the  most  hideous  of  crimes  and  vices,  and  yet  have  not 
one  word  of  condemnation  for  the  crimes  and  vices  them- 
selves. The  facts,  or  the  statements  of  facts,  are  not  called 
in  question,  but  only  the  manner  of  telling  them.  Dr.  O'Neill 
may  have  offended  the  canons  of  good  taste.  Granted;  but 
if  so,  what  is  his  offense,  and  his  publisher's  offense,  when 
compared  to  the  offenses  against  personal  right  and  personal 
parity  committed  by  the  men  whose  acts  are  laid  bare  by 
the  humane  and  plain-spoken  physician? 

SUPINENE8S  OF  WOMEN. 

As  to  which  reform,  which  agitation,  takes  or  should 
take  precedence  is  a  question  for  each  agitator  to  decide  for 
herself  or  himself.  For  myself  I  take  the  ground  that  be- 
fore woman  can  be  freed,  in  any  sense,  there  must  come  a 
genuine  desire  for  freedom — there  must  come  an  unquencha- 
ble thirst  or  longing  for  something  higher  and  better  than 


24 

our  laws  and  customs  now  grant  to  women;  and  I  maintain 
that  there  is  no  means  by  which  this  desire,  this  unquencha- 
ble longing,  can  be  excited  or  aroused— no  means  so  potent 
for  this  purpose  as  an  appeal  to  her  maternal  instincts — 
her  mother  love. 

Appeals  to  her  judgment,  or  sense  of  right,  will  gener- 
ally fail,  simply  beoause  woman's  large  approbativeness 
prompts  her  to  hearken  to  what  "they"  say;  that  is,  her  de- 
sire for  the  approval  of  others  leads  her  to  adopt  the  popu- 
lar standard  of  propriety  rather  than  to  follow  her  own 
unbiased  judgment.  Appeals  to  her  love  of  personal  ease, 
comfort,  health  or  of  life  itself  will  often  fail  because  her 
natural  generosity  or  benevolence  prompts  her  to  sacrifice 
her  own  ease,  oomfort,  health  or  even  life  for  the  benefit, 
real  or  supposed,  of  others.  Not  only  does  natural  impulse 
make  women  self-sacrificing  but  education,  especially  reli- 
gious education,  makes  her  still  more  so. 

Whether  woman  be  naturally  religious  or  not  there  cau 
be  no  doubt  that  her  aspirational  and  emotional  nature  makes 
her  an  easy  victim, an  eager  devotee,  to  religious  beliefs,  and 
it  is  necessary  only  to  remember  that  the  religions 
of  all  nations  and  peoples  assign  to  woman  a  subordinate 
position,  and  make  obedience  to  man,  self-sacrifice  for  man, 
an  important  part  of  each  religious  creed — it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  remember  this  to  know  that  her  religious  education 
is  a  most  potent  factor  in  woman's  enslavement. 


If,  then,  appeals  to  woman's  judgment,  to  her  sense  of 
self-preservation  or  to  her  educational  and  religious  preju- 
dices— if  none  of  these  considerations  can  be  relied  on  to 
stimulate  woman  to  action  in  her  own  behalf  there  remains 
but  one  more  appeal  to  be  made,  and  that,  as  already  said, 
is  the  appeal  to  her  love  for  her  offspring — her  maternal  af- 
fection—the strongest,  the  deepest,  the  most  universal,  most 
abiding,  of  all  human  instincts  or  emotions. 

Once  convince  woman,  by  reference  to  matters  of  fact 
that  come  or  may  come  within  the  field  of  her  own  observa- 
tion, that  in  submitting  to  abuses  such  as  the  Awfu!  Letters 
describe  she  is  doing  an  irreparable  wrong  to  her  helpless 
and  innocent  unborn  babes— convince  her  that  the  condi- 
tions, the  physical,  mental  and  moral  influences,  under 
which  she  allows  herself  to  become  a  mother  are  indellibly 
stamped  upon  the  minds  as  well  as  bodies  of  her  children, 
convince  her  of  these  facts,  facts  now  known  to  every  phy- 
siologist, and  you  supply  woman  with  the  first  and  most  es- 
sential factor — most  important  condition  or  element — in 
and  towards  her  own  emancipation  from  all  slaveries, 
economic  dependence  on  man  included,  viz:  a  consuming,  un- 
quenchable desire  for  freedom,  for  self-ownership,  in  order 
that  she  may  worthily  fulfill  her  function  of  motherhood; 
in  order  that  she  shall  no  longer  be  compelled  to  become 
the  unwilling  creator  and  bui  lder  of  mental  and  moral 
dwarfs  and  imbeciles — in  order  that  she  may  no  longer  be 
compelled  to  help  supply  the  gallows,  the  prison,  the  poor 
house,  the  house  of  ill-fame,  with  birth-predestined  victims. 


/ 


25 


I  quite  agree  with  Lizzie  M.  Holmes  that  it  is  not  alone 
the  "mere  tie  of  niarrriage"  that  keeps  women  in  bondage, 
but  my  own  observation  and  the  confessions 
that  have  reached  my  ears,  convince  me  that  pov- 
erty, or  the  economic  dependence  of  woman  upon  man,  is 
not  the  only  or  even  the  chief  cause  of  woman's  enslavement. 
That  this  economic  dependence  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
of  the  secondary  causes  I  freely  admit,  but  back  of  all  this 
is  the  supineness  of  woman  herself,  and  chief  among  the 
elements  of  this  supineness  is  woman's  fear — "fear  of  God," 
fear  of  the  priest  or  parson,  but  more  than  all,  fear  of  what 
her  own  sex  will  say  about  her.  So  long  as  her  own  sex, 
(Madame  Grundy)  tells  her  that  she  must  submit  without  an 
audible  murmur  of  complaint  to  all  the  nameless  outrages 
that  a  sexually  insane  husband  can  heap  upon  her  we  may 
rest  assured  that  the  vast  majority  of  women  will  silently 
and  tamely  submit. 

To  arouse  her  from  this  condition  of  supineness  Lucifer 
is  now  appealing  to  woman's  most  powerful  emotion — her 

MOTHER  LOVE. 


VOICES  FROM  PAST  AOES  ATVI>  ECHOES  FROM 
THE  PRESENT. 

Half  the  cruelty  in  the  world  is  the  direct  result  of 
stupid  incapacity  to  put  one's  self  in  the  other  man's 
place. — John  Fiske. 

How  frequently  audacity  and  pride  are  found  in  the 
guilty  and  shame  and  embarassment  in  the  innocent. 
— J.  J.  Kousseau  Confessions,  9th  Book,  p  39«s. 


Disjointed  from  any  perceived  good,  the  divine  will 
is  simply  so  much  as  we  have  ascertained  of  the  facts 
of  existence  which  compel  obedience  at  our  peril. — 
George  Eliot.    Life  by  Cross,  Vol.  3,  p  10. 

Solomon  informs  us  that  much  reading  is  a  weari- 
ness to  the  flesh,  but  neither  he  nor  other  inspired 
authors  tell  us  that  such  or  such  reading  is  unlawful, 
yet  certainly  had  God  thought  good  to  limit  us  herein, 
it  had  been  much  more  expedient  to  have  told  us  what 
was  unlawful  than  what  was  wearisome.  —Milton's 
Areopagitica. 


"What  the  State  can  usefully  do  is  to  make  itself  a 
central  depository,  and  active  circulator  and  diffuser, 
of  the  experience  resulting  from  many  trials.  Its 
business  is  to  enable  each  experimentalist  to  benefit 
by  the  experiments  of  others,  instead  of  tolerating  no 
experiments  but  its  own." — John  Stuart  Mill,  On 
Liberty, 


26 


"Every  hand  is  wanted  in  the  world  that  can  do  a 
little  genuine  sincere  work." — George  Eliot.  Life  by 
Cross,  Vol.  II,  p  41;  Franklin  Sq.  Library. 


The  prevalence  of  misery  and  want  in  this  boasted 
nation  of  prosperity  and  glory  is  appalling  and  really 
seems  to  call  us  away  from  mental  luxury.  Oh,  to  be 
doing  some  little  toward  the  regeneration  of  this 
groaning  travailing  creation!  I  am  supine  and  stupid 
— overfed  with  favors — while  the  haggard  looks  and 
piercing  glance  of  want  and  conscious  hopelessness 
are  to  be  seen  in  the  streets. — George  Eliot.  Life  by 
Cross,  p  IS. 


uAnd  so  there  will  be  always  some  who  will 
forget,  under  the  pressure  of  certain  disadvantages, 
all  the  blessings  that  a  free  press  has  conferred  upon 
us,  who,  in  the  sun,  will  see  nothing  but  spots,  or,  in 
the  spring  time,  a  carnival  of  east  winds.  Moreover, 
is  the  abuse  of  a  thing  to  be  truly  and  permanently 
cured  by  restraining  the  use  of  it?  If  a  man  handles 
his  sword  awkwardly,  so  that  he  wounds  his  friends 
and  himself  rather  than  the  enemy,  will  his  dexterity 
be  improved  by  taking  his  weapon  from  him?  Or 
shall  we  not  better  teach  him  a  more  judicious  man- 
agement?— Hale's  Introduction  to  Milton's  Areopa- 
gitica. 


It  is  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  administra- 
tion of  criminal  justice,  that  acts  creating  crimes 
should  be  certain  in  their  terms  and  plain  in  their  ap- 
plication, and  it  would  be  in  no  small  degree  unseem- 
ly that  courts  should  be  called  upon  in  administering 
the  criminal  law,  to  adjudge  an  act  creating  offense 
at  one  time  valid  and  at.  anotner  time  void. — A.  S. 
Johnson  J.,  in  Wynehamer  v  Peo.,  N.  V.  425. 

It  often  saddens  one  to  find  between  the  leader  of 
a  great  reform  and  the  reform  itself  a  wide  discrep- 
ancy; the  work  seems  so  great  and  massive  and  noble 
and  the  man  seems  so  weak  and  little  and  contempti- 
ble.—Nicoll  "Great  Movements,"  Wilberforce,  p  51. 

"Assuming  if  you  like  that  Mr.  Bradlaugh  is  the 
vilest  man,  in  attacking  the  rights  of  the  vilest  of 
men  yeu  attack  the  rights  of  the  most  noble  of  man- 
kind."—Mr.  Labouchere  defense  of  Bradlaugh,  from 


-7 


''Scenes  in  the  Commons,"  Anderson,  p  152. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  Mr.  Bradlaugh  individually. 

tkThey  are  not  skillful  considerers  of  human  things 
who  imagine  to  remove  sin  by  removing  the  matter 
of  sin,  for,  besides  that  it  is  a  huge  heap,  increasing 
under  the  very  act  of  diminishing,  though  some  part 
of  it  may  for  a  time  be  withdrawn  from  some  persons, 
it  cannot  from  all,  in  such  a  universal  thing  as  books 
are,  and  when  this  is  done,  yet  the  sin  remains  entire. 
Though  ye  take  from  a  covetous  man  all  his  treasure, 
he  has  yet  one  jewel  left,  ye  cannot  bereave  him  of 
his  covetousness.  Banish  all  objects  of  lust,  shut  up 
all  youth  into  the  severest  discipline  that  can  be  ex- 
ercised in  any  hermitage,ye  cannot  make  them  chaste, 
that  came  not  hither  so,  such  great  care  and  wisdom 
is  required  to  the  right  managing  of  this  point. 

"Suppose  we  could  expel  sin  by  this  means,  look 
how  much  we  thus  expel  of  sin,  so  much  we  expel  of 
virtue,  for  the  matter  of  them  both  is  the  same,remove 
that  and  ye  remove  them  both  alike.  This  justifies 
the  high  providence  of  god,who,though  he  commands 
us  temperance,  justice,continence,yet  pours  out  before 
us  even  to  a  profuseness  all  desirable  thiugs,and  gives 
us  minds  that  can  wander  beyond  all  limit  and  satiety. 
Why  should  we  then  affect  a  rigor  contrary  to  the 
manner  of  god  and  of  nature,by  abridging  or  scanting 
those  means,  which  books,  freely  permitted,  are,  both 
to  the  trial  of  virtue,  and  the  exercise  of  truth  — 
Milton's  Areopagitica. 


THE  XUDE  IN  LITERATURE. 

[The  following  common  sense  article  by  George  Cary 
Eggleston,  origiDally  appeared  m  the  N.  Y.  World.  That  it 
is  appreciated  as  an  honest  expression  of  right  sentiment  on 
the  subject  of  which  it  treats  is  shown  by  the  facts  of  its 
frequent  reproduction  in  other  papers.  A  friend  sends  it  to 
us  as  reprinted  by  The  Author,  Boston,  Jan.  1890.— 
Lucifer,  April  tfhjOu. 

Our  generation  needs  to  learn  that  ignorance  is  not  in- 
nocence, and  that  knowledge  is  not  only  not  guilt,  but  is  not 
provocative  of  guilt.  The  evil  facts  of  life  and  of  humau 
nature  are  known  to  every  humau  being  who  has  passed 
beyond  infancy.  Such  knowledge  enters  the  mind  througn 
gates  which  no  precaution  can  close,  and  such  knowledge 
becomes  evil  ODly  when  its  possessor  is  taught  to  lie  about 
it  by  pretending  ignorance. 

It  is  the  function  of  literature  to  reveal,  to  describe, 


28 


to  depict  the  facts  of  human  character  and  human 
life.  The  question  is  whether  it  shall  depict  them  truthfully 
or  shall  disguise,  pervert  and  falsify  them  with  the  ready- 
made  clothing  of  conventionality;  whether  it  is  better  for 
literary  art  to  tell  the  truth  or  to  tell  lies;  whether  it  is  bet- 
ter to  present  hideous  things  as  they  are  or  to  hide  their 
hideousness  beneath  some  false  pretence,  and  thus,  perhaps, 
to  make  things  alluring  which  should  be  repulsive. 

Women's  instincts  are  finer  and  truer  than  man's,  be- 
oause  women,  as  a  rule,  are  morally  better  than  men;  and  it 
is  a  fact,  known  to  every  observant  person,  that  women  are 
less  unreasonably  conventional  in  their  views  of  this  matter 
than  men  are.  It  is  men,  and  not  women,  who  sceat  evil 
and  danger  in  literary  truthfulness;  it  is  men,  and  not 
women,  who  loosely  class  together  as  bad  all  works  of  fiction 
which  deal  with  forbidden  things  of  character  and  conduct, 
without  intelligently  discriminating  between  those  which 
deal  with  such  matters  in  artistic  fashion  and  exalted  pur- 
pose and  those  which  make  vile  use  of  them  as  allurement 
to  attentio  n. 

The  attitude  of  the  public  toward  this  matter  is  strange- 
ly inconsistent  and  incomprehensible.  Classic  literature, 
English  and  other,  is  not  only  tolerated,  but  admired,  and 
held  up  to  the  writers  of  our  time  as  an  example  for  imita- 
tion, and  yet  that  which  mainly  distinguishes  classic  litera- 
ture from  the  literature  of  our  time  is  the  greater  unre- 
straint with  which  the  writers  of  classic  literature  handled 
the  facts  of  human  nature  for  artistic  and  moral  pur- 
poses. 

In  our  time  there  is  a  strange  want  of  discrimination 
between  the  artistic  and  the  brutal  use  of  what  are  called 
the  forbidden  things  as  literary  materials.  Our  straight- 
laced  generation  will  not  look  upon  nakedness  in  everything. 
Even  truth  must  be  draped  by  the  tailor  and  disguised  by 
the  modiste. 

The  true  test  of  morality  in  literature  is  its  effect  upon 
the  mind  of  the  reader,  and  by  that  test  every  book  should 
be  judged.  The  real  question  is  not  whether  all  the  incidents 
recorded  in  the  story  are  incidents  to  be  approved,  or  whether 
all  the  characters  have  acted  as  a  high  morality  dictates, 
but  whether,  on  the  whole,  the  tendency  of  the  book  is  to 
make  the  reader  love  vice  or  loathe  it.  The  study  of 
pathology  does  not  prompt  the  physician  to  love  disease  or 
to  invite  it  in  his  own  person,  and  the  study  of  physiology 
wou  Id  be  of  little  use  to  him  if  he  drew  a  veil  between  his 
eyes  and  ttja  possibility  of  morbid  conditions. 


29 


For  erotic  fiction  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,— by 
which  I  mean  notion  the  effect  of  which  is  to  confuse  moral 
standards  and  falsify  conceptions  of  right,— no  right-thinking 
man  or  woman  can  have  anything  but  loathing  and  contempt; 
but  it  would  be  fatal  to  literary  art  to  exclude  from  le- 
gitimate use  those  facts  of  life  and  character  which  the 
erotic  novelist  turns  to  illegitimate  account. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  legitimacy  of  materials;  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  the  legitimacy  of  the  uses  made  of  them. 


THE  WOMAN<HTESTI03i.~lFo»'  Lucifer. 

NUMBER  VI. 

Prom  the  New  York  World  of  March  Dth,  I  enclose  a 
double  column  display  heading  as  a  census  taken  by  World 
reporters,  in  which  the  numbers  of  the  houses  and  the  names 
of  the  heads  of  families  are  given  in  detail.  Please  repro. 
duce  it,  as  nearly  as  you  can  do  so,  reducing  it  to  the  size  of 
your  single  column : 

A   CENSUS  OF  CHILDREN, 

SIERILE    FIFTH    AVENUE    VERSUS     PROLIFIC    CHERRY  HILL. 

A  MOST  SIGNIFICANT  EEVELATION. 


WHAT  WOULD  BECOME  OF  THE  REPUBLIC  IF  FIFTH  AVENUE  WAS 
ITS  ONLY  HOPE? — IS  WEALTH   AN    ENEMY    OF  CHILD- 
HOOD ? — READ    THESE    FIGURES    AND  LEARN 
THEIR  LBSSON. 

THE  "SUNDAY  WORLD'S"  CANVASS. 

300  FIFTH  AVENUE  FAMILIES. 

Total  number  of  children  under  10  years,   91 

Total  number  ol  children  born  within  12  months. . .  6 

300  CHERRY  HILL  FAMILIES; 

Total  number  of  children  under  10  years  .060 

Total  number  oi  children  born  within  12  months.  ..Ill 

The  World1  s  comment  upon  this,  after  giving  the  mode 

of  making  the  canvass,  is  as  follows: 

"The  showing  of  this  canvass  is  remarkable.  It  proves  that 
only  one  in  fifty  Fifth  avenue  families  had  a  child  last  year,  while 
over  one-third  of  the  Cherry  Hill  families  added  to  the  population. 

"During  the  last  ten  years  300  Fifth  avenue  families  had  01  chil- 
dren, while  300  Cherry  Hill  families  had  660  children, 

"Cherry  Hill  has  been  over  eighteen  times  as  prolific  as  Fifth 
avenue  the  past  year. 

"And  yet  Fifth  avenue  has  the  wealth  and  the  leisure  to  rear  the 
future  citizens  of  the  republic  as  they  should  be  reared,  while 
Cherry  Hill  struggles  in  poverty. 

"Is  Wealth  an  Enemy  of  Childhood? 

"Is  Fashion  the  Foe  of  Posterity/ 

"Hero  are  tho  texts  for  many  a  sermon. " 

If  it  were  the  question  between  wealth  and  fashion  on 


30 


the  one  side  and  honest  industry  upon  the  other,  the  Republic 
would  have  little  to  fear  from  the  results  shown.  If  wealth 
has  no  heirs,  it  is  not  annihilated;  the  world  will  enjoy  it 
after  this  generation  leaves  it.  I  am  not  sure  that  the 
wealthy  are  any  better  qualified  co  produce  and  to  educate 
the  next  generation,  than  the  average  citizen.  But  Cherry 
Hill  is  the  abode,  not  of  honest  industry  and  thrift,  but  of 
poverty,  ignorance,  intemperance  and  crime.  While  the 
wealthy  are  sterile;  while  the  educated  and  industrious 
classes  produce  slowly;  the  lowest  classes  in  the  community 
are  reproducing  themselves  at  the  rate  of  a  child  to  every 
family  every  three  years.  It  is  a  warning.  The  Republic 
can  stand  foreign  immigration;  but  can  it  stand  the  degrada- 
tion which  will  follow  the  blotting  out  of  the  higher  classes, 
and  replacing  them  by  the  lowest  classes  f 

No  pecuniary  independence  for  women  will  even  palliate 
this  evil.  While  public  sentiment  regards  women  as  per- 
forming their  whole  duty,  who  are  not  in  the  way  of  be- 
coming mothers  of  at  least  four  to  six  children,  pecuniary 
independence  tends  to  degradation  in  the  next  generation. 
This  generation  are  not  yet  worthy  of  freedom.  Women  are 
not  yet  worthy  of  it;  and  men  are  not  worthy  of  a  state  of 
society  in  which  woman  will  be  free.  Important  then  as  is 
freedom  for  woman;  while  we  should  do  all  that  we  can  to 
assist  her  to  obtain  it  as  aright;  yet  the  first  and  most  import- 
ant lesson  for  us  to  learn,  and  to  reduce  to  practicality, 
is  honorable  maternity.  The  marriage  which  does  not  result 
in  four  to  bix  children  of  a  superior  quality  is  a  failure.  It 
is  the  lower  classes  who  need  fewer  bhildren  and  better: 
the  higher  classes  need  more  children  and  better. 

The  children  of  the  lower  classes  can  be  improved  by 
education;  and  that  is  our  only  safety  just  now;  but  the  true 
remedy  is  to  lay  the  axe  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  and  let  the 
higher  classes  produce  the  larger  families  of  children.  When 
we  can  remodel  our  social  institutions  so  that  that  shall  re- 
sult, the  Republic  will  be  saved.  Pbnblope. 

Daguiar  Mariagcr  to  J mlj;c  roster. 

Judge  Foster:  Sir:— A  young  woman  of  my  acquaint- 
ance, and  who  was  a  good  looking,  bright,  modest  and  honest 
servant  in  a  private  family,  met  some  years  ago  a  man  of  her 
church,  who  in  due  time,  by  hie  gentlemanly  behavior, 
won  her  consent  to  be  his  wife.  He  was  a  clerk  in  a  store, 
and  was  respected  and  honored  by  the  public,  and  a  favorite 
among  his  fellow  church  goers,  and  all  said  that  in  getting 
him,  a  man  who  had  a  home  to  give  her  aad  money  i»  the 


31 


b  ank,  while  she  had  only  a  couple  of  hundred  from  her 
earnings,  she  was  doing  well. 

The  couple  were  married  one  evening,  and  the  morn- 
ing of  the  second  day  she  deserted  him,  resuming  her  duties 
n  the  family  which  she  had  left  but  36  hours  before.  The 
husband  raised  a  great  rumpus,  and  made  bitter  complaint, 
and  sent  the  minister  and  all  the  congregation  to  solicit  her 
return  to  him,  as  she  refused  herself  to  talk  with  him.  The 
would-be  peacemakers  and  all  their  acquaintances  coaxed 
her,  and  then  badgered  her,  and  finally  threatened  her  with 
sooial  odium  for  her  unwifely  behavior,  if  she  did  not  im- 
mediately resume  and  remain  true  to  the  promise  she  had 
made  before  God  and  man  to  live  with  her  husband.  None 
of  these  god-fearing  and  god-loving  people  knew,  or  cared 
to  know  why  she  had  deserted  him,  though  all  knew  that 
she  was  not  the  one  to  do  such  thing  on  an  idle  whim,  or 
without  a  proper  reason.  It  was  not  the  welfare  of  either 
the  wife  or  the  husband  that  prompted  these  pf  ople  to  this 
course  in  their  desire  to  continue  the  union,  but  that  blind 
reverence  for  the  institution  of  marriage,  whioh  has  been  the 
mother  of  countless  crimes  against  my  sex. 

The  meddling  public  labored  in  vain,  and  (the  threatened 
sooial  odium  was  duly  and  piously  cast  upon  the  woman- 
It  met  her  at  every  turn  with  a  vengeance  becoming  the 
spirit  of  such  unreasoning  and  fanatical  people  as  follow 
Comstook  m  a  blind  honoring  of  a  name,  while  the  deed 
underlying  it  reeks  in  filth  amd  is  in  all  its  bearings  un- 
eclipsibly  foul.  In  the  meantime  the  young  husband  had 
p  ower,  being  a  pet  both  in  his  church  and  his  secret  lodge 
and  he  and  his  indignant  friends  scattered  the  most  ground- 
less and  loathsome  reports  against  the  woman's  honor,  and 
whenever  she  went  upon  the  streets  the  good  citizens  and 
"respectable"  people  cast  at  her  brazen  insults  and  the  foul- 
est accusations.  The  many  knew  and  privately  acknowl- 
edged her  innocence,  but  continued  and  applauded  the  per- 
secution in  a  growing  spirit,  in  the  theory  that  the  end 
aimed  for  justified  the  means  resorted  to  to  secure  it.  Sna 
was  thus  cut  away  from  all  her  past  friends,  as  she  dared 
not  enter  the  church  unprepared  to  confess  her  sins  and 
promise  au  aim  to  live  a  "better  life." 

She  was  with  a  Jewish  family  but  even  they,  because  of 
the  public  clamor  against  her,  and  because  of  the  husband's 
business  interests,  were  compelled  to  discard  her  both  as 
friend  and  servant,  and  thus  she  was  set  upon  the  streets 
to  be  attacked  by  the  multitudinous  mass  of  jeering  moral- 
ists. She  was  homeless,  penniless,  ill  and  crushed  by  the 
wrongs  done  her  in  the  name  of  purity,  while  she  dared  not 
speak  in  self-defense.  She  disclosed  her  secret  to  me,  but  I 
dared  not  repeat  it.  I  was  otherwise  unable  to  help  her,  and 
so  I  saw  her  driven  to  seek  a  livelihood  by  prostitution,  and 
the  self-righteous  people  cried  out:   "There!— Didn't  I  tell 


•°>2 

yon  so?  I  kne  n  she  was  nothing  but  a  scheming  strumpet, 
if  she  hadn't  been  a  poor  friendless  woman  tue  stink  she 
raised  would  not  have  been  suffered  so  long.  She  has  brought 
diegraoe  upon  the  community,  and  given  us  a  deal  of  trouble, 
the  huzzy." 

Her  secret  was  this: —  Dagmar  Mariager. 

|  For  the  present,  at  least,  the  remaining  paragraph  is 
withheld.  To  spare  the  feelings  of  those  who  cannot  bear  to 
hear  an  inhuman  outrage  spoken  of  in  the  only  terms  that 
can  properly  portray  the  enormity  of  that  outrage  we  leave 
the  further  explanation  to  the  'imagination  of  the  reader.-  - 
Lucifer,  April  4th,  '90. 

Another  Appeal. 

Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  Cor.  Brooklyn  and  Lorne  Sts. 

Judge  Foster :  Seeing  by  the  Valley  Falls  Lucifer, 
dated  October  18,  that  their  trial  had  been  postponed  till 
spring,  I  write  to  beseech  you  to  think  seriously  and  con- 
scientiously of  their  case  and  to  not  allow  prejudice,  fear  of 
oriticism  nor  condemnation,  influence  you  during  their 
trial.  Deal  with  them  justly  and  they  will  certainly  be 
freed.  In  the  name  of  all  that  is  good  and  great,  for  the 
sake  of  what  liberty  we  now  possess,  for  the  sake  of  op- 
pressed womanhood  and  in  the  interest  of  coming  genera- 
tions, do  not  allow  these  innocent  men — for  they  are  just  as 
innocent  of  any  crime  as  either  you  or  I — to  be  imprisoned 
for  a  single  day.  They  have  done  a  great  and  noble  work 
m  publishing  their  brave  Lucifer,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  it 
will  live  long  and  prosper  to  do  still  more  good  by  shedding 
its  bright  light  on  many  darkened  intellects. 

I  have  been  a  constant  reader  of  Lucifer  for  over  two 
years  and  have  failed  to  ever  see  any  tiling  obscene  in  it,  not 
excepting  the  Markland  letter.  On  the  contrary  it  could 
not  help  having  an  elevating  and  refiniog  influence  on  any- 
one who  would  thoughtfully  peruse  it;  and,  as  for  those  who 
delight  in  reading  obscene  literature,  they  would  be  sadly 
disappointed  in  Lucifer,  but  can  find  all  the  smut  and 
filth  they  desire  in  the  daily  papers.  There  are  some  peo- 
ple who  pretend  to  be  so  nice  they  consider  it  indecent  for  a 
woman  to  expose  her  arms  and  shoulders  and  men  who  can- 
not look  on  a  woman  thus  without  exciting  their  lewd  de- 
sires; but  does  that  make  the  woman  who  so  dresses 
obscene?  And  so  it  is  with  what  Lucifer  publishes.  It  is  the 
person  who  is  obscene  who  thinks  the  Markland  letter  ob- 
scene. 

"To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure"  is  ever  true.  And  so 
Anthony  Com9tock,  if  he  has  success  in  his  present  under 
takings,  will  probably  turn  his  attention  to  women  ex- 


33 


posing  their  arms  and  shoulders  and  term  it  "indecent  ex- 
posure." Not  being  one  who  indulges  in  that  kind  of  dress 
I  might  be  selfish  enough  to  say,  like  some  do  when  it  is 
not  their  shoe  which  pinches,  "I  don't  care;  it  doesn't  hurt 
me  any."  But  I  will  not,  for  until  we  feel  that  every  one's 
sorrow  is  our  sorrow  misery  will  reign. 

Every  woman  in  the  land  should  try  and  encourage 
these  men  in  their  grand  endeavor  to  free  women  from  sex 
slavery.  To  think  how  poor  helpless  women  are  ill-treated 
in  the  name  of  law  and  with  the  pretext  of  protection! 
It  is  shameful,  but  it  will  never  be  righted  without  perfect 
freedom  of  speech,  press  and  mails.  Hoping  you  will  see 
clearly  and  be  on  the  side  of  liberty  and  justice, 

Yours  respectfully,  M*ts.  L.  D.  McOaslin. 


marital  Ab  uses  a  Fruitful  Cause  of  Insanity. 

Eochesteb,  Minn.,  March  20,  '90. 
Editor  .Lucifer:  Am  very  sorry  to  learn  of  your  recent 
arrest,  more  sorry  to  know  such  hideous  praotices  as 
the  O'Neill  letter  portrays  are  enacted,  and  most  sorry  to 
see  "twilight  liberals"  censure  you  for  daring  to  print  the 
naked  truth. 

Does  any  one  of  these  alleged  Liberals  think  it  possible 
to  plaster  over  suoh  vices  and  such  vicious  practices  with  a 
healing  salve  which  will  not  at  the  same  time  draw  the  im- 
purities of  the  system  to  the  surface?  Deception  has  been 
tried  too  long,  and  that's  what's  the  matter!  Some  say: 
"O  yes,  this  subject  should  be  discussed,  but  in  a  proper 
manner."  That  assertion  is  ambiguous.  What  would  be  a 
"proper"  way  for  one  who  thinks  or  believes  "the  human 
form  divine,"  would  be  decidedly  improper  to  another  who 
has  become  mentally  twisted  up  into  a  contorted  muddle  by 
false  ideas  and  church  teachings. 

I  do  not  blame  Mrs.  Whitehead  for  wishing  to  resign, 
but  it  appears  to  me  that  the  obnoxious  facts  so  infill  all 
humanity  that  there  is  no  resigning  or  running  away  possi- 
ble, and  I  hold  that  the  church  is  most  to  blame  for  the 
present  status  of  ignorance  and  vice.  Marriage  is  a  "sacred" 
institution ! 

Just  one  case  for  record:  A  young  lady  friend  acted  as 
attendant  for  several  months,  at  our  Sec.  State  Insane 
Asylum  here.  As  it  was  necessary  for  the  attendants  to 
know  how  to  proceed  with  new  patients,  the  doctor  in 
charge  would  give  instructions.  One  morning  a  woman  was 
brought  in,  who  had  been  there  before.  The  doctor  turned 
to  Miss  ft.  and  said:  "She  is  not  violent.  Some  men  are 
brutes,  and  that's  all  you  need  to  know.  Yes,  men  are  worse 


34 


than  brutes  and  ought  to  be  killed.  Look  at  that  poor 
woman's  eyes.  You  will  soon  learn  to  tell  a  misused  mar- 
ried woman  by  her  looks.   There  are  many  such  here." 

Miss  K.  learned  that  this  was  the  third  time  this  patient 
bad  been  brought  there.  After  the  first  commitment  the 
doctor  told  the  husband  that  it  would  result  in  permanent 
insanity  if  ehe  had  any  more  children.  She  had  the  child 
and  returned  home  to  the  "protectiDg"(?)  arms  of  her  owner* 
(husband)  and  in  a  few  weeks  had  to  be  taken  to  the  Asylum, 
again  and  again,  during  pregnancy,  to  escape  the  loving 
embraces  of  her  husband! 

Miss  B.  said:  "I  heard  and  Baw  so  much  of  the  utter 
slavery  of  these  women  that  I  have  concluded  to  grow  up  an 
old  maid,  rather  than  to  give  myself  in  marriage  to  any 
man." 

Now,  does  it  not  seem  an  imperative  duty  we  owe  future 
generations,  to  demand  that  woman  shall  be  freed  from  the 
enforoed  (l)awful  "marital  rights"  of  man? 

Those  who  would  be  free  mugt  strike  the  blow, 
Strike  f«r  justice,  and  more  room  to  grow— 
And  don't  be  so  slow! 

Flora  W.  Fox. 


O'Neill  to  his  Critics. 

New  Yobk  City,  March  29, 1890. 
I  will  take  no  notice  of  personal  criticisms  because  I  do 
not  care  a  straw  for  them,  and  because  your  space  is  too 
valuable  to  be  filled  with  egotism. 

I  think  it  was  Alexander  Pope  who  said. 

"Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  frightful  mien 
That  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen." 

I  fail  to  see  how  the  recital  of  such  outrages  as  I  men- 
tioned, could  incite  others  to  commit  such  atrooities .  As  well 
might  it  be  said  that  the  acoount  (in  the  newspapers)  of  the 
Nebraska  woman  who  cooked  and  ate  her  new- born  babe 
would  provoke  other  women  to  do  likewise! 

As  for  the  question  of  "taste"  I  would  simply  say  with 
Horace ,  "De  Gustibus  non,"  &c.  [There  is  no  disputing 
about  tastes.] 

The  records  of  the  Insane  Asylums,  Divorce  Courts, 
Women's  Hospitals,  and  Medical  Journals  are  full  of  out- 
rages on  women  by  their  husbands,  perpetrated  under  the 
aegis  of  "Law  and  order." 

The  only  real  question  at  issue,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is 
this:  Under  the  law  of  Equal  Freedom,  has  not  every 
man  a  right  to  publish  what  he  deems  proper,  so  long  as  he 
dote  not  infringe  the  equal  rights  of  others,  and  so  long  as 
he  slanders  no  one? 


Some  one  has  said" 

"All  seems  vicious  which  the  vicious  'spy. 
As  all  looks  yellow  to  the  jaundiced  eye." 

How  does  this  apply  to  the  contemptible  curs  and  hypo- 
crites, Comstock  &  Co.,  who,  with  the  "prayer"  of  their  al- 
leged "god"  upon  their  lips,  "Lead  us  not  into  temptation,'* 
go  and  deliberately  tempt  men  to  "vice"  and  then  gloat  with 
fiendish  glee  over  their  rascally  work!  They  are  all  pre- 
tended followers  of  the  meek  and  gentle  Jesus,  who  said: 
"If  a  man  smite  thee  on  one  cheek  turn  to  him  the  other," 
"Love  thine  enemies,"  "do  good  to  them  that  hate  thee,  and 
bless  them  that  persecute  thee."   I  quote  from  memory. 

I  observe  that  many  are  inoculated  with  the  "non- 
resistance"  mania.  I  am  not  a  follower  of  Jesus  nor  of 
Tolstoi,  while  I  hope  I  recognize  the  good  in  both.  I  take 
the  view  of  Krapotkin,  Ruskin,  Reclus  and  others,  on  this 
point.  "They  have  rights  who  dare  maintain  them."  A 
willing  slave  is  more  contemptible  than  a  tyrant ! 

Tbe  non-resistance"  doctrine  is.  to  my  mind,  nothing  but 
intellectual  castration.  You  know  feow  Bishop  Origen  and 
his  monks  went  around,  like  a  press-gang,  castrating  every 
man  they  met  so  that  he  migh  t  the  better  be  able  to  "save 
his  soul!" 

I  thought  Mrs.  Whitehead  (a  most  estimable  lady)  was 
rather  deficient  in  "back-bone,"  from  a  conversation  on 
Revolutionary  Anarchism  I  once  had  with  her.  Her  heart 
is  in  the  right  place,  however.  She  is  a  "non-resistant" 
thinker. 

I  hope  to  revert  to  this  subject  again  very  soon,  pro- 
vided you  are  inclined  to  devote  any  space  to  the  subject 
of  "Revolutionary  Anarchism."  R.  V.  O'Neill. 


That  Which  is  Done  in  Secret  Shall  be  Proclaimed 
Upon  the  Housetop. 

East  Portland,  Obe.,  March  27,  '90. 

Bbo.  Habman:  I  sent  some  stamps,  the  first  part  of  this 
month  for  back  numbers  of  Lucifeb,  as  mine  had  been  lost 
in  trying  to  forward  them  to  me  while  I  was  down  in  Coos 
county,  but  they  have  not  come  to  hand  yet,  consequently  I 
have  not  seen  Dr.  O'Neill's  letter,  but  in  Lucifeb  of  date, 
March  21st,  I  find  a  letter  in  reference  to  the  same  which 
gives  me  some  idea  of  what  the  letter  is  for  the  publishing 
of  which  you  are  again  arrested. 

My  brother,  men  a  hundred  years  henC9  will  glory  in 
the  fact  that  a  man  had  the  courage  to  probe  the  ulcer  so 
deeply,  and  if  there  is  a  deeper  bottom  let  us  have  it— let  if 
be  scraped  clean. 

The  woman  with  whom  I  am  staying  is  one  against 


36 


whom  even  Mother  Grundy  dare  not  wag  her  tongue.  A 
friend  read  the  letter  that  "duplicates"  O'Neill'i  to  her 
while  she  was  preparing  the  dinner,  before  I  had  had  time 
to  look  at  it,  and  she  too  understood.  This  afternoon,  while 
■peaking  of  it  she  said,  "It  made  ma  sick  ;  I  could  not  eat 
my  dinner.  I  know  of  one  case  where  a  man  when  his  wife 
was  so  near  her  confinement  that  he  did  not  care  to  enforce 
his  claim  in  the  natural  way,  forced  her  to  relieve  him  by 
making  a  "sucker"  of  her  and  she  would  vomit  with  the  dia- 
gustand  nausea  thus  caused.  The  child  was  a  poor  sickly. thing 
that  seemed  so  disgusted  with  food  that  they  could  hard- 
ly get  enough  down  it  to  keep  it  alive.  I  could  never  publish 
anything  like  that,  but  I  am  glad  Mr.  Harman  has  had  the 
courage  to  do  it  and  I  will  stand  by  him." 

This,  to  me,  was  testimony  from  an  unexpected  source. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  horror  I  felt  when  I  first  learned 
(some  sixteen  years  since)  that  such  a  thing  was  possible. 
For  years  I  could  never  bring  myself  to  put  the  diabolical 
perversion  into  words.  Three  years  ago  last  November,  when 
in  Chicago,  I  heard  a  lady  say  of  some  man  who  was  named 
by  another: 

"They  say  he  is  a  French  taster."  "What  is  that?"  I 
asked,  and  then  for  the  first  time  I  learned  that  there  were 
men  who  earned  their  living  in  that  manner. 

Great  Comstock!  I  was  going  to  say  great  God,  but  I 
think  Comstock  will  do.  I  am  tired  of  a  god  who  can  keep 
silent  while  such  abominations  prevail;  tired  of  a  Chria- 
tianty  which  imprisons  people  for  opening  up  such  hells  to 
the  light  of  day.  And  yet  they  claim  to  be  the  followers  of 
one  who  is  reported  as  saying: 

"That  which  is  done  in  secret  shall  be  proclaimed  upon 
the  housetop." 

Yes,  these  things  will  and  must  come  to  the  light  and 
the  causes  which  produce  such  degradation  must  be 
found  and  removed. 

And  yet  such  knowledge  can  be  of  little  use  under  our 
present  property  system,  only  as  it  serves  to  show  the  ne- 
cessity of  economic  independence  for  woman  and  the  way 
to  obtain  it. 

Yours  for  the  bottom  truth,  Lois  Waisbrookbr. 

 «  m  »  

For  Lucifer, 

"SCIE^TER'W'KflOWlNGI/tf." 
The  indictment  against  Aunt  Elmina  was  quashed  be- 
cause it  did  not  allege  "scienter;"  that  is,  although  it  alleged 
that  she  knowingly  deposited  obscene  letters  in  the  mail,  it 
did  not  allege  that  she  knew  that  they  were  obscene.  If 


37 


she  had  been  asked  by  a  neighbor  to  deposit  a  letter  in  the 
mail,  without  knowing  its  contents,  and  if  the  letter  really 
was  obscene,  she  would  have  committed  the  act  described 
in  the  indictment;  but  that  would  not  have  been  a  criminal 
act;  it  would  not  have  been  a  violation  of  the  statute.  The 
indictment  therefore  failed  to  include  one  of  the  essential 
elements  of  the  criminal  act  it  was  undoubtedly  intended 
to  charge.  That  was  a  fatal  defect,  and  the  indictment  was 
quashed.  The  multitude  of  indictments  first  brought  against 
the  publishers  of  Lucifer  were  all  defeclive  for  the  same 
reason;  and  Judge  Foster  followed  the  ruling  of  Judge 
Paul,  and  quashed  them  all. 

This  was  not  a  mere  technicality.  Not  only  were  the 
government  excused  by  the  form  of  the  indictment  from 
bringing  forward  any  evidence  that  Aunt  Elmina  knew 
that  the  letters  were  obscene,  but  she  was  prevented  from 
proving  that  she  did  not  know  that  they  were  obscene.  She 
could  have  proved  that;  she  had  witnesses  there  for  that 
purpose;  but  such  evidence  was  ruled  out;  it  was  not  relevant 
to  the  matter  before  the  court.  And  the  same  would  have 
been  true,  undoubtedly,  had  the  original  indictments  against 
the  publishers  of  Lucifer  proceeded  to  trial.  The  omis- 
sion of  the  allegation  of  scienter  would  have  deprived  the 
defendants  of  an  important  element  in  their  defense. 

When  the  new  indictments  come  to  trial,  the  defendants 
answer  that  they  did  not  know  the  matter  complained  of  to 
be  obscene;  and  if  that  is  true,  it  is  a  sufficient  defense. 
The  decision  of  Judge  Paul,  and  Judge  Foster,  as  well  as 
prior  decisions  with  which  they  concurred,  settle  that 
beyond  controversy.  It  is  not  at  all  the  question  what  Judge 
Foster  believes  to  be  obscene,  or  knows  to  be  obscene,  or 
what  the  jury  believe  to  be  obscene,  but  what  the  publish- 
ers of  Lucifer,  at  the  time  of  the  mailing  of  the  several  ar- 
tioles  complained  of,  knew  to  be  obscene. 

The  publishers  of  Lucifer  knew  at  that  time  of  the 
legal  definition  of  obscenity  in  tne  Bennett  case,  and  in 
earlier  cases.  They  knew  that  the  term  obscene  in 
the  statute  had  received  authoritative  construction. 
They  knew  that  that  construction  was  not  the 
definition  given  in  the  dictionaries,  which  includes, 
"foul,  filthy,  offensive,  disgusting."  It  is  manifest 
with  such  a  definition  the  law  would  be  exceedingly  string- 
ent. It  is  impossible  for  an  editor  to  avoid  disgusting  some 
of  his  readers.  If  he  speaks  strongly  against  a  political 
candidate,  the  friends  of  that  candidate  are  disgusted;  while 
if  he  does  not  speak  strongly,  his  own  friends  are  disgusted . 


38 

But  unreasonable  as  the  Comstock  law  is,  it  is  not  so  bad  afl 
that;  and  the  publishers  of  Lucifer  knew  that  it  was  not. 
They  had  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  construction  given 
to  the  statute  by  the  court  was  the  construction  which  it 
was  their  duty  to  accept;  and  moat  certainly  they  did  not 
know  that  they  could  be  amenable  to  the  law  under  a  differ- 
ent construction. 

The  question  then  is  whether  they  knew  that  the  articles 
complained  of  were  obscene  in  the  legal  sense.  The  legal 
construction  is  this: 

"The  test  of  obscenity  is,  whether  the  tendency  of  the 
matter  is  to  deprave  and  corrupt  the  morale  of  those  whose 
minds  are  open  to  such  iutiuences,  and  into  whose  hands  a 
publication  of  this  sort  may  fall." 

Will  it  be  supposed,  can  it  be  supposed,  that  they-kuew 
or  believed  that  the  tendency  of  these'articlos.was  to^deprave 
and  corrupt  the  morals?  There  are  minds  so  full  of  lust 
that  it  is  always  bubbling  up  to  the  surface;  and  such 
minds,  even  the  horrors  of  the  Markland  and  O'Neill  letters 
might  not  be  able  to  restrain.  It  is  not  thesa  letters  which 
excite  lustful  thoughts,  but  it  is  their  own  innate  or  inbred 
corruption.  The  publishers  of  Lucifer,  in  the  publication 
of  the  earlier  papers  complained  of,  believed  that  their 
tendency  would  be  to  benefit  the  morals  of  tho3e  who  read 
them;  they  certainly  did  not  know  that  it  would  not.  And 
in  the  last  three  years  they  have  seen  the  good  which  has 
arisen^from  them;  they  have  seen  how  the  good  and  the  pure 
have  been  strengthened  by  them  in  their  endeavor  to  pro- 
mote good  morals;  and  now  it  canuot  be  said  that  they 
know  what  all  their  experience  contradicts;  but  on  the  con- 
trary it  may  be  safely  said  that  they  know  that  the  articles 
they  have  published  are  not  obscene,  that  their  tendency 
has  not  been  corrupting,  but  has  been  directly  the  reverse. 

Diana. 

WHO  A^I>  WHAT  ARE  TRIAL? 

Iii  less  than  two  weeks  from  the  date  of  this  is- 
sue of  Lucifer  an  important  trial  is  expected  to 
come  off  in  the  U.  S.  District  Court  at  Topeka,  Kan- 
sas. Important,  not  because  of  the  prominence  of  the 
individuals  who  stand  accused  of  crimes  or  misde- 
meanors, but  important  because  of  the  principles  in- 
volved in  the  questions  that  will  then  and  there  come 
up  for  investigation  and  for  legal  interpretation  and 
decision,  and  important  because  of  the  prominence 
and  number  of  the  persons  who  will  really  though 
not  technically  or  nominally  be  put  on  trial. 


39 


As  it  is  just  possible  if  not  probable  that  the  pre  s- 
ent  conductor  of  this  free  platform — Lucifer's  plat- 
form,— will  not  much  longer  be  allowed  the  privilege 
of  saying  his  say  from  said  platform,  he  now  respect- 
fully asks  the  careful  attention  of  the  reader  of  these 
lines,  to  a  short  statement  of  what  he  believes  to  be 
the  issues  to  be  tried  at  the  approaching  term  of  the 
U.  S.  Court  and  also,  who  are  the  persons  that  are 
then  and  there  to  be  put  on  trial. 

I.    As  to  Principles: 

(1)  The  principle,  the  right,  the  demand  or 
claim,  of  and  for  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press  J 
will  be  put  on  trial. 

(2)  The  principle  of  citizen  right  to  and 
of  civil  liberty,  including  political  and  religious 
liberty,  will  be  put  on  trial;  for  if  speech  and  press 
be  not  free,  then  it  can  be  easily  shown  that  civil, 
political  and  religious  liberty  are  hollow  mockeries. 

(3)  The  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United 
States  will  be  put  on  trial.  The  constitution  and 
laws  are  part  of  the  machinery  of  the  artificial  thing 
we  call  government.  Government,  human  govern- 
ment, is  of  itself  an  evil,  a  very  expensive  and  dan- 
gerous evil — dangerous  because  of  the  tendency  to 
arrogate  to  itself  powers  and  functions  that  do  not 
rightly  belong  to  it.  Government, — written  constitu- 
tions and  laws, — is  the  creature  of  man,  and  therefore 
inferior  to  man.  In  fact,  until  incarnated  in  the  per- 
son of  man,  or  men,  as  officials  or  executors,  govern- 
ment is  only  an  idea.  As  a  force  or  power  it  is  less 
than  what  we  call  "the  idle  wind"!  Incarnated  in 
man  or  men  this  idea  becomes  useful  or  hurtful  ac- 
cording to  its  use  or  abuse.  The  only  use  or  excuse 
for  the  existence  of  this  thing  we  call  government  is 
to  help,  by  co-operative  effort,  to  secure  each  individ- 
ual person  or  citizen  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  or  her 
natural  rights.  Among  the  most  important  of  all  nat- 
ural rights  is  the  right  to  think  and  the  right  to  ex- 
press one's  thoughts.  This  latter  necessarily  implies 
or  includes  the  right  to  free  speech  and  free  press. 

If  the  written  constitution,  as  an  important  part 
of  the  artificial  arrangement  we  call  the  government 
of  the  United  States,  provides  for  and  guarantees  ab- 
solute freedom  of  speech  and  press,  then  this  fact 
will  be  fully  brought  out  at  the  Topeka  trial. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  no  such  guarantee  in 
the  printed  document  called  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  then  this  fact  also  will  be  fulJy  made 
manifest,  and  it  will  then  be  in  order  for  the  citizens 


40 


of  the  country  called  the  United  States  to  begin  to 
inquire  whether  this  document,  the  venerable  docu- 
ment they  have  been  taught  to  regard  as  the  palladi- 
um of  their  liberties,  is  really  worth  the  blank  paper 
it  is  written  on. 

As  to  other  laws,  as  to  enactments  other  than 
the  constitution  itself,  bearing  upon  the  case  or  cases 
under  consideration,  the  same  remarks  or  rules  will 
apply.  If  these  laws  support,  guarantee  and  defend 
the  citizen  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  natural  rights 
then  they  will  come  out  of  the  ordeal  unscathed;  but 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  found  that  they  deny  or 
contravene  those  natural  rights,  then  the  verdict  must 
be  pronounced,  ''Weighed  in  the  balance  and  found 
wanting!" 

II.    As  to  Persons: 

(1)  The  judge,  Cassius  G.  Foster,  will  then  and 
there  be  on  trial.  As  presiding  officer,  arbiter  or  um- 
pire, the  responsibilities  of  the  judge  are  very  great. 
The  judicial  oath,  a  copy  of  which  is  given  a  conspic- 
uous place  in  large  type  on  first  page  of  this  issue, 
outlines,  in  part,  at  least,  the  responsibilities  resting 
upon  the  presiding  officer  of  the  court,  but  it  does 
not  tell  the  whole  story.  Cassius  G%  Foster,  for  in- 
stance, was  a  man  and  a  citizen  before  he  was  a  judge 
of  the  IJ.  S.  District  Court.  When  he  became  a  judge 
he  did  not  cease  to  be  a  man  and  a  citizen.  His  man- 
hood and  citizenship  are  of  much  greater  importance 
to  him  than  his  judgeship.  His  duties  as  a  man  and 
a  citizen  take  precedence  of  his  duties  as  a  judge, 
simply  because,  as  already  stated,  governments,  of 
which  judgeships  are  a  part,  are  the  work  of  man,  or 
of  men,  and  therefore  inferior  to  the  men  who  make 
and  who  can,  if  they  choose,  ?iumake  them.  As  a 
man  it  is  Cassius  Gr.  Foster's  duty  to  do  no  wrong  to 
any  human  being.  As  a  citizen  of  a  republic  or  com- 
monwealth he  is  the  equal  of  any  other  citizen,  living 
or  dead,  consequently  he  owes  allegiance  to  no  other 
citizen  or  citizens,  for  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  an  in- 
dividual citizen  owes  allegiance,  loyalty,  to  an  equal, 
or  to  equals.  The  only  allegiance  or  loyalty  that  a 
free  and  equal  citizen  can  owe,  is  loyalty  to  his  oion 
manhood,  to  his  highest  ideal  of  Truth,  Right  and 
Justice,  If  the  constitution  and  laws  embody  and 
represent  C.  G.  Foster's  highest  ideal  of  truth,  right 
and  justice,  then  he  owes  allegiance  to  that  constitu- 
tion and  those  laws,  but  only  because  of,  and  so  far 
as,  they  embody  this  highest  ideal. 


.  „>,    •  ;  Ar..ri  I  ,;  ,4.x. ..  ai*  I  baa  jtfostfaa eif»ia 

T'^li  S US  I:.!  See*  JdJ?lXO*M  08IO«d4 

*j  f.s$ii^t  is  to  say,  every  judge,  every  magistrate,  ev- 
ery presiding  officer1  of  a  court,  from  the  .lowest  to 
the  highest,  is 

KM^?sUf'i.W^Tn^|j&»  OF  HIS  MANHOOD, "«  »*S»WV 

and  -by-virtue  of  his  citizenship,  a  judge  of  the  .  laws, 
t^statutes,  the  human  enactments,  that  he  is  called- 
Wpb%  Xo  administer— from  the  constitution  of  Alei- 
a^^r^aniilton,  of  Washington  and  Franklin,  do^^ 
dai*?li  to  the  postal  laws  engineered  through  a  degen- 
erate'Siftl  debauched  Congress  by  Anthony  Coms'tock! 

These  are  some  of  the  reasons  why  we  say-  :t%4X 
oi^i^h^ipersons  to  be  put  on  trial  at  Topeka,  Kan- 
sas,  Ati'ihb  approaching  session  of  the  U.  S.  DJgftjuj^i 
Court,  Caissus  G.  Foster  takes,  and  should'  or  right 
ta^ej;t^$rsj.^nd  niest; ;impprtant.'  place.     Ho-yr  he 
l^Je^,^^^!^^!!^^^!^^!^!!  of  this  trials  flP^ 
que^ipihin; whiehrmany  thousands  of  people  'scatter jj", 
edWllWover  this  broad  land,  now  feel  a  deep  interim, 
Wifl  he  comte^otit  of  it  with  honor  to  himself  ansta 
w^t^l^t  to/ffie  judiciary  of  which  he  is  a  membet*4 
ot^ifivffeiwSfU.  prove  to  be  too  great  for  the  ■ijiaftf'{ 
\^iU;^,^to\fciijBscif  a  jurist  whose  record  '  ^IJ'r.fe^ 
fwod^woiJtbyUo^^'u'oted  on  the  side  of  liberty  anjeU 
an^^ity^m  future  years,  or  will  he  take  rank  -  mtkri 
thbjge^ j'ttrjsts  who  sacrifice  principle  to  expediency- 
to  judicial  bias,  who  bow  to  ''precedent1'  instead  y>jf* 
to  Truth  and  Justice,  and  for  social  or  political  rea- 
sons are  reaay.  to  ..sacrifice  the  innocent  to  gratify'  a 
pd^Ula^iUmbY^  which  clamor  has  no  other;: cause  ^©1*3 
foundatJ"oji:,tHaS.  ignorant  prejudice? 

"  'Besides  the  judge  there  are  other  persons  wfio0^ 
wbli  Jae.fHit  <$n  ifcrial  at  Topeka  within  tHe  next  two 
we^s^ttt'the  consideration  of  their  cases  will  have  (o 
to  iy^pdstponed  till  another  issue. — Lugifeb,  April  4, 
WQnba*  tftiaed  Vermel*  ei  •  **N      wb-i*«  ■; 

nidi  KKrti  JTOTSS  A*I>  COH?Hl^TS. 

^BeBp*edt!M&e\  morality,  popular  morality  is,  only  skin 
dee^r.  the  fabled  apples  of  Sodom  it  is  fair  and  beauti*.^ 

ful  to  the  sight,  but  break  or  cut  the  rind  and  yaujgnfl  noth- 
ing $raP$ifoer  ^sfees:  'I  It  is  not  strange  therefore}-,  $hat  tfca>; 
guai^iens^oMbis  respectable  morality  should  seek  to  pflniek 
by  fmeBvfifira  imprisonment  the  daring  iconoclasts  who  have  ^ 
the  nBrdihtte^Td  pttncture  the  fair-seeming  shell.  ,  and  ehow 
the-Wtei^ess^hat'ft  hides. 

ol  BDee£.'flf|M>«  oa  wop  ci±i^_L  a 
Of  the  ^eiity  bad  contributors  to  the  make-up  of  this 
edition  of  Lucifer  six  or  seven  are  physicians  by  vpjoataeP" 
It  woufcLseemtefiy  po^e*'and:  right  that  physicians*  Is  a 
class  should  take  a  leading  part  in  the  discussions  growing 
out  of  the  sex-question,  especially  in  its  physiologic  and  by- 

\ 


42 


gienic  aspects,  and  I  am  very  glad  indeed  to»  find  among 
them  so  many  that  seem  fully  awake  to  the  importance,  the 
paramount  importance  of  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge 
on  this  hitherto  neglected  and  tabooed  subject. 


Are  there  such  things  as  "nameless  crimes,"  or  name- 
less vices?  If  there  be  crimes  and  vices  more  atrocious  than 
all  others — crimes  and  vices  the  bare  mention  of  which  makes 
the  hearer  stand  aghast  and  catch  his  breath  short  and 
quick,  is  not  this  fact  itself  the  best  possible  reason  why 
such  crime  or  vice  should  receive  the  more  accurate  descrip- 
tion, so  that  its  presence  or  near  approach  may  be  the  more 
readily  detected  and  guarded  against?  The  attention  of  the 
candid  reader  of  Lucifer  is  invited  to  the  article  of  Dr. 
Lloyd,  in  this  issue,  entitled,  "Describing  Disease  in  not 
itself  Disease,'' — and  especially  to  the  paragraphs  beginning, 
"Sexual  vileness  is  a  form  of  sexual  disease,"  and  ending 
with,  "to  call  the  simple  description  of  a  vile  act  vile,  is  just 
as  absurd  as  to  call  tne  description  of  murder  murderous,  or 
the  description  of  theft  robbery." 

I  quite  agree,  in  passing,  with  Dr.  Lloyd,  that  it  is 
"more  important  in  every  way  that  people  should  have 
clear  sexual  ideas,  than  that  their  prejudices  with  regard  to 
certain  words,  phrases  or  forms  of  expression  should  be 
overcome."  Lucifek  hitherto  has  made  no  fight  for  the 
use  of  any  particular  words,  phrases,  or  forms  of  expression. 
All  we  have  demanded  is  the  right  to  use  such  words  and 
phrases  as  shall  describe  "accurately  and  scientifically"  ths 
subject  matter  upon  which  we  are  treating,  and  this,  too,  if 
fltortly  contended  for  by  Dr.  Lloyd  himself.  So  then  there 
really  is  no  ground  of  difference  between  us.  While  assert- 
ing, now  and  always,  our  absolute  right,  with  and  for  a  good 
purpose,  to  use  the  lauguage  of  the  "slums"  as  it  is  called, we 
have  not  yet  utilized,  or  practicalizsd,  that  right,  so  far  as 
this  writer  now  recalls. 

"Obscenity"  exists  only  in  the  mind  of  him  or  her  who 
perceives  it  as  such.  Abnormality,  perversion,  may  exist 
and  does  exist  outside  the  mind  that  perceives  it,  but 
obscenity  never.  Instance: 

A  manure  heap  reeking  with  ammouiacal  gasses,  is,1to 
the  ignorant  and  artificial  city  dude  an  obscene,  a  disgusting 
object.  But  to  the  intelligent  and  common  sense  agricul- 
turist it  is  neither  obscene  nor  disgusting;  he  sees  in  this 
uncouth  and  malodorous  pile  the  elements  of  beauty  and  of 
use— the  beauteous  and  fragrant  flower  and  the  useful  fruit. 
He  knows  that  the  ammoniacal  gasses  escaping  from  this 
heap  are  destructive  to  health,  so  he  goes  to  work  to  change 
abnormality  to  normality  by  bringing  into  play  the  law  of 
ruse. 

So  likewise  an  uncared-for  wound  is  a  disgusting,  an  ob- 
scene object  to  the  uneducated  and  unsympathising 
observer.  To  the  educated  and  humane  physioian,  however, 
no  evidence  of  abnormality  is  disgusting  or  obscene.  He 
observes  carefully  the  nature  of  the  granulations 
and  from  these  indications  he  learns  how  to  adapt  means  to 
ends  so  as  to  secure  a  return  to  normality  or  to  health. 

Dogmatism,  arrogant  self-assertion  or  assumption  of 


43 

superior  knowledge,  wisdom  or  goodnees,  is  by  no  means  an 
exclusive  trait  of  the  orthodox  Ohnstiau  clergy.  Editors, 
including  some  who  claim  to  be  evoluted  out  of  the  bogs  and 
fogs  of  superstition  and  to  have  reached  the  broad  table- 
lands of  Rationalism  and  INaturalism,  sometimes  show  very 
strong  symptoms  of  the  dogmatic  disease.  To  those  editors 
who  have  sat  upon  Lucifer's  case  anent  the  O'Neill  publica- 
tion, and  who  have  pharisaically  and  magisterially,  if  not  ju- 
dicially and  juridically  condemned  him,  we  would  mildly 
■uggeet  that  they  read  this  number  of  Lucifer  through, 
not  neglecting  the  reprinted  article  on  fourth  page  entitled, 
"The  Nude  in  Literature."  Read  it  carefully,  laying  aside 
prejudice,  if  possible,  and  you  will  probably  come  to  the 
writer's  conclusion  that  "it  is  not  a  question  of  legitimacy  of 
materials;  it  13  a  question  of  the  legitimacy  of  the  uses  made 
of  them."  That  is  to  say,  all  materials,  including  all  words 
and  phrases,  are  legitimate  and  proper  when  a  right  and 
proper  use  is  made  of  them.  Tried  by  this  rule  I  am  con- 
fident no  humane  or  generous  souled  man  or  woman  can,  on 
due  reflection,  cod demu  Dr.  R.  V.  O'Neill  for  writing,  nor 
Lucifer's  editor  for  publishing  the  letter  that  has  beeu  made 
the  pretext  for  a  new  assault  upon  personal  and  civil  lib- 
erty. 


The  lesson  to  be  drawn  from  these  illustrations,  when 
applied  to  social  or  sexual  diseases,  abuses  or  abnor- 
malities is  too  obvious  to  need  further  elaboration. 

Among  the  short  letters  in  the  correspondence  depart- 
ment will  be  found  one  signed  "Nancy  Harman."  That  the 
bare  mention  of  this  name  awakens  many  a  teuder  memory 
in  the  mind  of  the  writer  will  not  be  thought  strange  when 
I  say  that  the  owner  of  that  name  is  my  mother.  With  her, 
by  her  and  for  her  the  battle  of  life  has  been  fought.  Her 
record  is  made,  and  though  it  may  a  partial  son  that  says  it, 
no  record  is  more  honorable,  in  the  true  aod  right  sense, 
than  is  hers.  The  world  with  its  ambitions,  its  joys  and 
sorrows,  is  now  fast  receding  from  her  sight — she  is  now  in 
the  eighty-third  year  of  her  age — but  she  has  lost  nothing 
of  her  lifelong  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  the  son  who 
bow  pens  these  lines.  If  our  correspondence  can  be  relied 
on  there  are  many  who  have  watched  and  are  watchiug  with 
interest  the  progress  of  the  battle  for  free  p  ress  in  the  Kan- 
sas U.  S.  Court,  but  it  may  be  safely  said  that  by  none  has 
this  contest  been  watched  with  more  earnest,  more  unflagging 
solicitude  than  by  Nancy  Harman.  A.  mother's  love,  a 
mother's  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  her  children,  never 
grows  old,  never  wearies,  never  dies!— Lucifer,  April  4,  '90. 


WHO  AND  WHAT  ABE  ON  TRIAL? 

In  last  issue  of  Lucifer  something  was  said  in 
answer  to  this  inquiry.  The  ground  was  then  and 
there  taken  that  the  principle  of  free  speech  and  of 
free  press,  is  or  would  be  on  trial  in  Topeka,  on  or 
about  the  14th  inst.  Also,  Jhe  principle,  the  doctrine, 
the  right  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Also,  that  the 
constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United   States,  are 


44 


now  and  would  then  be  on  trial.  Also  the  judge,  or 
presiding  officer  of  the  court,  would  then  be  tried. 
And  now  we  add  the  names  of  a  few  other  persons,  viz: 

The  district  attorney,  J.  W.  Ady,  by  name,  will 
be  on  trial  at  the  approaching  session  of  the  IT.  S. 
District  Court.  Of  this  gentleman's  past  record  I 
know  nothing.  I  met  him  once,  at  the  preliminary 
examination  at  the  time  of  the  last  arrest,  and  my  im- 
pressions of  him  both  as  a  man  and  as  an  official,  were 
decidedly  favorable.  There  was  no  indication,  either 
in  his  manner  or  his  words,  that  he  felt  himself  better 
or  greater  than  other  men  because  of  his  official  char- 
acter ox  position.  As  was  said  of  Judge  Foster,  so  I 
would  say  of  Dist.  Attorney  Ady,  he  was  a  man  and  a 
citjxen  before  he  became  a  U.  S.  official.  His  man- 
hood and  his  citizenship  are  of  much  greater  import- 
ance to  him  than  is  his  attorneyship.  Both  his  man- 
hood and  hia  citizenship  require  him  to  do  no  wrong 
to  any  human  being.  If  on  sufficient  examination  of 
the  complaints  against  any  defendant,  he  should  be- 
come satisfied  in  his  mind  that  no  wrong  was  com- 
mitted or  intended  by  such  defendant  it  will  be  his 
duty,  as. a  man  and  as  a  citizen  to  proceed  no  further 
in  the  case.  As  the  U.  S.  Attorney  for  Kansas  it  is 
his  interest  to  magnify  his  office  and  make  it  honora- 
ble by  securing  as  many  convictions  under  the  law  as 
possible,  whether  the  parties  prosecuted  are  really 
guilty  of  intentional  wrong  or  not.  As  a  possible  as- 
pirant f 01  other  and  higher  positions  of  honor  and 
trust  the  temptation  to  listen  to  the  popular  voice,  in- 
stead of  the  demands  of  justice,  will  be  great  and  hard 
to  resist.  Whether  J.  W.  Ady,  the  man,  will  triumph 
over  the  temptations  that  assail  J.  W.  Ady,  the  offi- 
cial^ re  mains  to  be  seen. 

There  are  still  other  persons — the  jury,  the  wit- 
nesses and  the  general  pubiic— -that  will  then  and 
there  be  on  trial,  but  of  these,  more,  perhaps,  hereafter. 
— IitrciFBR,  April  11,  '90. 

NOTES  A]*n  COJOIE^TS. 

I  find  the  following  accredited  to  Gol.  G.  Ingersoll, 
ab  bis  opinion  of  the  agent  qf  £he  Naw  York:  Society  for  the 
Suppression  of  Vice,  in  whose  beJiahV or  at  whose  instance, 
the  postal  laws^wej^e  enacted  unjer^^cl},^o^E|^  now 
being  prosecuted  : 

M I  regard  Comstook  as'  infamous  beyond  -expression.  I 
have>  very  little  respect  for  those  men  who  endeavor  to*pHt 
down  vice,  by  lying,  and  very  little  respect , for  a.sooiefcft.fcb*t 
would  keep  in  its  employ  such  a  leprous  agent,"  ,  j  V,,;V!.; 

-To  those  who  reverence  "authority,''  it'in'ay^ be  of  use 
to  quote -Blaokstone's  Introduction  to  Ins  Commentary.1- 


45 


After  giving  at  some  length  his  ideas  of  the  origin  of  "law" 
he  sums  it  up  by  saying  that  the  "foundation  of  what  we 
call  ethics  or  natural  law"  "is  this  one  paternal  precept,  •that 
man  should  pursue  his  own  true  and  substantial  happi- 
ness,' "  and  then  proceeds  to  add, 

"This  law  of  nature,  being  coeval  with  mankind,  and 
dictated  by  God  himself,  is  of  course  superior  to  any  other. 
It  is  binding  over  all  the  globe,  in  all  countries,  and  at  all 
times,  no  human  laws  are  of  any  validity,  if  contrary  to  this, 
and  such  of  them  as  are  valid  derive  their  forces  aud  all  their 
authority,  mediately  or  immediately,  from  this  original." 


It  is  true  that  Black6tone  mixes  up  a  good  deal  of 
theology  with  his  talk  about  the  origin  of  law  and  of  ethics 
but  this  is  to  be  expected  of  a  jurist  who  lived  and  died 
before  the  rise  of  modern  science.  The  essential  point  is  the 
concession  by  this  distinguished  author  that  no  human  law 
is  valid  that  contravenes  or  nullifies  natural  law  or  natural 
ethics,  which  natural  law  or  natural  ethics  he  says  is  built 
upon  the  precept  that  "man  should  pursue  his  own  true  and 
substantial  happiness."  Now  that  modern  science  has 
eliminated  the  god-idea  from  nature,  it  follows,  as  we  thmk, 
that  the  maxims  of  Blackstone,  i.  e.,  the  concession  of  the 
right  of  each  to  pursue  his  own  substantial  happiness,  in- 
cludes and  implies  the  concession  of  the  right  of  each  to 
decide  for  himself  what  is,  and  what  is  not,  his  true  and  sub- 
stantial happiness.  This  concession  then  must  be  fatal  to  all 
assumed  right  by  one  man  or  set  of  men  to  exercise  censor- 
ship or  control  over  their  fellow  men;  such  censorship  as  the 
Comstock  laws,  or  the  obscenity  laws,  would  predicate  and 
authorize. 

E.  H.  Hey  wood  in  March  Word  says:  "As  Sumner 
spoke  for  ravished  Kansas,  in  the  U.  JS.  Senate,  so  Harman 
types  the  woes  of  raped  wives,  and  re-incarnate  'bully' 
Brooks  bludgeons  him  for  it;  penned  by  Irish  pluck  which 
nerves  Parnell  in  the  British  Commons,  readers  SHALL  HAVE 
O'NEILL'S  LETTER  in  next  Word;  we  will  see  what  lewd 
official  or  citizen  dare  touch  us  for  printing  or  mailing  it." 
— Lucifer,  April  11,  '90. 


THE  ISSUE  COtfCISEEY  STATED. 

Tell  truth  and  shame  the  devil.— Shakspearb. 

A  noted  political  leader  when  asked  by  his 
friends  what  they  should  say  to  those  who  assailed 
his  private  personal  record,  replied  briefly  and  tersely, 
''Tell  the  truth !" 
A  hundred  years  ago  Robert  Burns,  poet,  philos- 
opher and  hater  of  shams,  wrote: 

•'Here's  Freedom  for  him  that  wad  read, 
Here's  Freedom  for  him  that  wad  write; 
There's  nane  ever  feared  that  the  truth  should  be  heard, 
Save  they  wham  the  truth  wad  indict." 

These  memorable  lines,  these  world-renowned 
aphorisms  most  clearly  and  concisely  outline  the  issue 
upon  which  hangs  the  verdict  and  sentence  in  the 
case  to  be  tried  at  Topeka  next  week  in  which  the 


40 


Kansas  Light-bearer  is  defendant  and  the  (alleged) 
people  of  the  United  States  of  America  are  plaintiffs. 

Lucifer  is  contending  for  the  right  to  tell  the 
"truth,  the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth,"  in 
regard  to  the  evils  (devils)  that  haunt  the  basement 
stories  of  our  social  edifice.  Lucifer  would  tell  the 
truth  and  shame  these  devils;  it  would  turn  upon 
them  the  calcium  light  of  investigation  so  that,  being 
seen  in  all  their  native  hideousness,  they  may  be 
shunned  by  the  unwary,  and  so  that  the  abodes  where 
these  devils  now  dwell  and  where  they  hold  their 
ghoulish  orgies  may  be  cleansed,  purified,  sanctified 
and  consecrated  to  the  use  of  the  "angels  of  light" — 
i,  e.,  the  normal,  the  uplifting  impulses  of  Un corrupt- 
ed Human  Nature. 

If  this  be  the  object  of  Lucifer's  contention — if 
Lucifer  is  really  what  ,its  name  indicates,  a  light- 
bringer,  what  must  be  the  position,  the  attitude,  the 
object,  of  those  who  are  now  ranged  in  battle  array 
against  it?  What  must  be  the  aim  of  the  prosecutors 
who  would  extinguish  Lucifer's  light?  The  answer, 
it  would  seem,  is  self-evident.  The  prosecutors  of 
Lucifer  do  not  want  the  lurking  devils  to  be  expos- 
ed! In  plainer  words,  Lucifer's  enemies  do  not  want 
the  social  evils,  the  sexual  perversions,  to  be  uncover- 
ed and  shown  to  be  what  they  are — physical  and  mor- 
al cancers  eating  away  at  the  vitals  of  humanity. 

Is  this  latter  position  untenable?  Is  it  incon- 
ceivable that  any  man  or  woman  of  average  intelli- 
gence could  really  wish  the  continuance,  the  perpetu- 
ity of  these  universally  acknowledged  evils? 

Sad  and  discouraging  as  such  admission  must  be 
to  the  lover  of  his  race,  the  conviction  has  long  since 
forced  itself  upon  the  writer  of  these  lines — who,  by 
the  way,  is  by  no  means  a  pessimist — that  there  is  a 
class  of  men,  a  very  influential  class  of  men,  whose 
interest  it  is  to  have  these  evils  perpetuated.  Helen 
H.  Gardener,  in  her  late  article  in  the  Arena^  speaks  of 
a  class  of  people  "who  are  benefitted  by  the  unintelli- 
gent increase  of  an  ignorant  population."  Aud  why 
or  how  should  anyone  be  benefitted  by  such  increase? 
The  answer  most  evidently  is  that  the  increase  of  an 
ignorant  population  gives  to  the  ease-loving  and  the 
power-loving  class  of  men  greater  facilities  and  more 
opportunities  for  the  exercise  or  gratification  of  their 
own  selfish  propensities. 

And  for  a  precisely  similar  reason  the  power-lov- 


47 


ing  class  are  interested  in  keeping  intact  the  vicious 
practices  and  the  revolting  sexual  crimes  that  have 
been  laid  bare  by  Lucifer's  correspondents.  This 
power-loving  class  may  be  personally  pure  themselves; 
they  may  never  be  guilty  of  participating  themselves 
in  those  vices  and  crimes,  but  they  know  that  it  is 
through  and  by  sex  that  the  human  race  is  reproduced^ 
and  they  know,  too,  that  whatever  vitiates  and  debas- 
es sex  vitiates  and  debases  the  product  of  sex — i.  e.f 
the  oncoming  generations  of  men  and  women.  This 
power-loving  class  know  that  if  all  children  were  born 
with  strong,  self-reliant,  intelligent  natures  there 
would  soon  be  no  need  or  occasion  for  a  governing 
class,  or  at  least  that  there  would  be  so  many,  com- 
paratively, that  would  be  capable  of  governing  them- 
selves, and  so  few  that  would  need  governing  by  oth- 
ers, that  their  own  chances  of  retaining  power  over 
their  fellow  men  would  be  greatly  diminished.  A 
captain  of  police  in  New  York  City,  in  speaking  of 
his  own  vocation,  is  reported  to  have  said:  "About 
so  many  arrests  must  be  made  anyway.1'  But  if  there 
were  no  ignorant  and  vicious  subjects  of  arrest  and 
punishment,  the  taxpayers  would  soon  tell  the  cap- 
tain of  police,  the  police  judges,  the  sheriffs,  the  leg- 
islators, etc.,  that  their  services  were  no  longer  needed. 

All  unconsciously,  it  may  be,  to  themselves,  even, 
but  that  these  considerations  largely  influence  the 
men  who  are  now  seeking  the  destruction  of  the 
Light-bearer,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe.  But 
these  are  not  the  only  considerations  and  causes  that 
are  now  at  work.  Among  these  causes  may  be  named 
the  old  theologic  superstitions  in  regard  to  sex,  and 
the  fear  that  if  too  much  light  is  thrown  upon  the 
workings  of  our  ecclesiastico-civil  laws  and  customs 
regulating  the  relations  of  the  sexes  the  integrity  of 
these  laws  and  customs  themselves  would  be  endan- 
gered or  destroyed,  and  thus  the  whole  time-honored 
fabric  come  tumbling  about  our  heads. 


To  sum  up  in  fewer  words  the  issue  to  be  tried 
at  Topeka  next  week,  it  is  the  issue  between  Truth 
and  Light  on  tue  one  hand,  and  Deception  and  Dark- 
ness on  the  other.  Lucifer's  work  is  to  uncover  and 
expose  vice  and  crime,  in  order  that  they  may  be 
avoided  and  that  their  perpetrators  may  be  held  to 
account.  The  work  of  the  prosecution  is  to  prevent 
■uch  exposure  by  imprisoning  the  man  who  has  had 
the  hardihood  to  publish  to  the  world  the  unvarnished 


48 


facts.  All  talk  about  "obscenity"  is  mere  subterfuge. 
Language,  words  and  phrases,  whether  spoken  or 
printed,  has  of  itself  no  character  at  all.  good  or  bad; 
its  character  depends  upon  the  use  to  which  it  is  put. 
If  the  use  of  words  in  the  exposure  of  evil,  for  the 
purpose  of  curing  that  evil,  be  not  a  legitimate  use  of., 
words  then  it  would  certainly  be  hard  to  find  a  leg 
mate  use. — Lucifer,  April  11,  '90.  ;  v  XtWj  f:., 

 — ~«   «*  %juiaioono  srii 

Who  is  Sufficient  for  These  Things.^  l-  law  <v  j 

May  I  make  a  few  comments  in  regard  toj  ..coworker* 
and  friends  of  humanity?  Knowing  as  I  do  the.  ppofdnnd 
honesty  and  hunianitarianism  of  Gelia'  I B.  Whiteiiead^bs*  l> 
deep  and  tender  lqye  for-.  suffering  human  beings/  I-caimdt  [ 
omit  to  testify  ;tMtX  consider  her  withdrawal  ftoict  LuOipaB? 
not  .m  th^^  l^ast  ait  ;i evidence  of  hard. hetirtednfes^!  kidlffe*-1  '■' 
en^e,  or^flkr^Kinlgfrcim  duty.  '  :' '  wolkrt 

Having  myself  experienced  the  •  siokness-  of  BouTa'tia- 
reaUscatedn  of  tbia horrible  i  degradation  of  my  sex  in  the  • 
early,  frays:  of  my  ^nV'ei&igationB,  even  to  the  axtent'ot^ 
p^rmoai-^sfiDistratloD^  ife^sylbtme  'td'iq^^^l^Uie^elili^ 
of  WUh^^e  Constant  ^s^edtiph''  of  the  marriaj^ 
"sd$e?  oaia  do-'h^no  good,— th^t''  it"  is,  for  tier,  wisdom  to 

With  one  exception,  the  facts  stated  in  Dr.  O'Neill's 
letter -are? S^Ie^Oi me.  That  the  sex  disorder  of  the  race  is 
much  more.; 'than  a  result  of  economic  defect,  I  haVe  no 
doubt.  The.onB-kideaus  fact  in  B  r.  O'Neill's  letter  indicates 
that^iplainly^-rthat  woman  wo lild  free  herself  from  slavery  ' 
tormab's- sex -nature  were-1  she  "free  and  independent"  eco- 
nomically,^ true  m  ail-  probability— at  least  so  far  as  serv- 
ing tlie  desire  of  a  man  would;  fr£e:fier. 

•-•-'(Butv  that  when  "Authority,  both  legal  and  ecclesiastical 
is  abolished,— when  free  pedpTa'kfcvd  !f ree  access  to  Nature's.  .1 
gifts,  the  'Sax  question  will  settle  itself,"— I  cannot  expect 
as  &^  my  friend  :  Lizzie  Holmes. 

1  Harriet  Gamer  has  touched  the  core  of  the  carbuncle:'  .  fT 
with  her  clear  thought  and  keen  shaft  of  truth— "Just  so 
long  as  human  beings  think  the  sum  of  happiness  is  inrjhe 
amount  of  sensation  gotten  on  the  coitive  plane  of  life  witi  ;< 
they  find  themselves  in  the  quagmire  of  disappointment,  . 
discontent  and  suffering.  .  ;.  *K> t .  .  { 

tJTM  higher  nature  of  man  is  a  perpetual  protest  against .  , 
dwelling.in  the  pleasures  of  sense.  The  kind  of  enjoymejtfSo,?  £ 
tbaji  do  not  tend  to  the  deeper  satisfactions  which.  nofchj#0or,4 
can.^sturb,  and'to  aspirations  for  the  nobler    life*  bepomrit»iK 

creative  principle.     When  his  creative  force    is  uselessly 


49 


expended  in  the  physical  sensation  he  has  robbed  himself  of 
the  potency  by  which  he  can  become  ruler  and  master  of 
himself,  and  of  all  life  below  him. 

This  useless  sense  gratification  has  demoralized 
generation  after  generation,  till  monstrosities  of  disorder 
are  common.  Moral  Education,  and  healthful  training  will  be 
requisite  for  some  generations,  even  after  we  have  equitable 
economics,  and  free  access  to  Nature's  gifts.  The  young 
man  of  whom  I  knew  who  threatened  his  bride  of  a  week 
with  a  sharp  knife  m  his  hand,  to  compel  her  to  perform  the 
office  of  "suoker,"  would  no  doubt  have  had  the  same  dispo- 
sition though  no  soul  on  the  planet  had  a  want  unsatisfied  or 
lacked  a  naturnl  right.  The  wife  left  him,  as  she  was  capa- 
ble of  eelf  support. 

Hie  aexual  insanity  could  not  be  cured  by  any  economic 
system.  Lucinda  B.  Chandler. 

JflOTES  OF  TRIAL., 

Lucifer,  April  18,  '90. 

Wednesday  night.  So  busy  have  I  been  with 
preparations  for  trial,  and  with  the  trial  itself,  that 
nothing  has  been  written  for  Lucifer  this  week.  At 
10  a.  m.,  today,  the  case  against  Moses  Harman  was 
called.  1  responded  by  making  an  application  for 
continuance  in  words  as  follow: 

UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 
Distbict  of  Kansas, 
In  the  District  Court  for  the  District  of  Kansas: 
The  United  States       )    Indictment  for  Depos- 
vs  f-iting  in  the  Mails,  Non- 

Moses  Harman,  et  al.  )  mailable  matter. 
George  Harman,  being  first  duly  sworn,  on  his  oath  de- 
poses and  says,  that  he  is  one  of  the  defendants  in  the  above* 
entitled  cause.  That  on  or  about  the  7th  day  of  April,  1890 
at  the  city  of  Topeka,  in  the  state  of  Kansas,  and  in  the  fed- 
eral building,  he,  the  affiant,  having  come  to  Topeka  for  that 
express  purpose,  had  a  conversation  with  the  Assistant  Unit- 
ed States  District  Attorney  for  the  District  of  Kansas,  Mr. 
Soper,  in  the  presence  of  David  Overmeyer,  wherein  said  So- 
per  agreed  with  this  affiant  and  said  Overmeyer,  who  was 
then  and  there  the  attorney  of  the  affiant  herein,  that  he, 
said  Soper,  and  Mr.  Ady,  the  District  Attorney,  would  agree 
upon  a  day  certain  upon  which  the  several  cases  against  said 
defendants  should  be  called  for  trial,  and  that  he,  Mr.  So- 
per, would  notify  said  Overmeyer  of  the  time  so  to  be  fixed, 
who  in  turn  would  advise  affiant  aud  the  other  defendants. 
And  affiant  says  that  he  relied  upon  said  arrangement,  and 
made  the  same  known  to  said  other  defendants,  Moses  Har- 
man and  E.  C.  Walker,  who  also  relied  thereon,  and  affiant 
says  that  said  Moses  Harman  is  affiant's  father,  and  that  he 
knows  that  said  Moses  Harman  placed  full  reliance  upon 
said  arrangement  as  aforesaid;  but  affiant  says  that  said  So- 
per and  said  Ady  did  not  fix  any  time  for  the  calling  of  said 


50 


cases  by  said  arrangement  agreed  on  and  that  the  same  be- 
ing now  called  and  so  called  not  in  pursuance  to  any  time 
so  fixed,  but  in  pursuance  of  the  order  in  which  said  cases 
were  placed  upon  the  docket,  whereby  the  defendants,  and 
especially  the  said  defendant,  Moses  Harman,  is  greatly  sur- 
prised and  embarrassed,  as  will  more  fully  appear  in  his  affi- 


In  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  District  of  Kan- 


Moses  Harman,  being  first  duly  affirmed,  on  his  solemn 
affirmation,  and  under  the  pains  and  penalties  of  perjury,  de- 
poses and  affirms  that  he  is  one  of  the  defendants  in  the 
ab-^ve  entitled  cause,  that  he  has  heard  read  the  foregoing 
affidavit  of  his  son,  George  Harman,  that  it  is  true  as  there- 
in stated  that  George  Harman,  on  his  return  from  the  city 
of  Topeka,  upon  the  occasion  referred  to,  made  known  to 
this  deponent  the  fact  of  an  arrangement  which  he  said  he 
had  made  with  Mr.  Soper,  the  Aesistant  United  States  Attor- 
ney for  this  District,  whereby  Mr.  Soper  had  agreed  to  con- 
sult with  Mr.  Ady,  the  District  Attorney,  and  fix  a  time  cer- 
tain upon  which  the  several  causes  against  these  defendants 
upon  the  above  indictment  and  indictments,  should  stand 
for  call.  And  deponent  says  that  he  had  arrangements  con- 
summated with  Mr.  Ed.  W.  Chamberlain,  an  attorney  and 
counsellor  at  law,  of  the  city  of  New  York,  whereby  said 
Chamberlain  should  come  here  to  Topeka  to  assist  in  the  de- 
fense of  the  deponent  herein,  when  he  should  b9  notified  to 
appear.  That  deponent  relied  implicitly  upon  said  arrange- 
ment between  said  Soper  and  his  said  son  and  co-defendant, 
Geo.  Harman,  and  fully  expected  and  intended  to  wire  Mr. 
Chamberlain  to  be  here  at  such  time  as  he,  deponent,  should 
learn  the  case  or  cases  were  fixed  for  trial  as  aforesaid,  and 
not  hearing  of  such  time  being  fixed  as  aforesaid,  deponent 
was  greatly  surprised  and  embarrassed  on  yesterday  to  learo, 
as  he  did,  that  no  special  time  had  been  fixed  for  the  calling 
of  said  cases  as  aforesaid.  And  deponent  says  that  Messrs. 
Clemens  and  Overmeyer,  who  formerly  represented  him  here- 
in are  no  longer  the  attorneys  of  deponent  herein,  having 
finally  and  definitely  withdrawn  from  the  defense  of  depo- 
nent on  the  9th  inst.,  of  which  said  deponent  was  advised  by 
letter,  late  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day.  But  not  until 
yesterday  did  deponent  learn  that  no  special  time  had  been 
fixed  for  the  calling  of  said  cases;  that  after  hearing  of  said 
fact  on  yesterday  he  immediately  telegraphed  to  said  Cham- 
berlain, and  later  last  night  wired  him  again  to  come  at  once. 
That  outside  of  said  Clemens  and  Overmeyer,  there  is  no 
other  lawyer  of  whom  deponent  has  knowledge,  besides  said 
Chamberlain,  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  these 
prosecutions  and  the  defense  of  this  deponent  thereto,  to 
properly  defend  deponent.  Besides  the  deponent  is  finan- 
cially poor  and  not  in  a  condition  to  employ  numerous  coun- 
sel.    And  deponent  says  that  if  the  trial  of  this  deponent 


davit  accompanying  this. 

\  SEAL.  \ 


GEO.  HARMAN. 
Subscribed  to  before  me  this  15th 
day  of  April,  '90. 

J.  C.  Wilson,  Clerk. 


sas: 

United  States 


vs. 

Moses  Harman,  et  al. 


51 


herein  and  upon  the  several  indictments  herein  is  not  post- 
poned until  such  time  as  Chamberlain  can  arrive  here,  depo- 
nent will  be  compelled  to  make  such  defense  as  he  cau  in 
person.  That  deponent  is  59  years  old  and  in  ill  health,  be- 
ing greatly  troubled  for  a  long  time  past  and  at  present  with 
insomnia,  and  greatly  debilitated  and  a  sufferer  from  anae- 
mia or  poverty  of  blood  and  palpitation  of  the  heart,  and  de- 
ponent says  that  in  view  of  the  condition  of  his  health  he 
feels  that  he  is  not  physically  able  to  properly  conduct  his 
own  defense,  even  if  he  were  otherwise  able  to  do  so.  And 
deponent  has  learned  since  this  affirmation  has  been  in  pro- 
cess of  preparation,  by  telegram  just  received  from  said 
Chamberlain  that  he  was  confused  by  the  two  dispatches  of 
the  deponent,  but  that  he  would  start  at  once  upon  another 
dispatch  from  deponent  to  do  so.  And  deponent  says  that 
he  has  a  good  and  valid  defense  herein;  that  he  is  not  guilty 
as  charged  in  the  indictment  herein,  and  he  prays  the  court 
to  postpone  the  hearing  of  this  case  and  these  cases  as  to  this 
deponent  for  a  reasonable  time  that  he  may  be  represented 


This  request  was  very  promptly  denied  by  the 
court,  winding  up  his  refusal  by  saying:  "If  you  had 
been  as  diligent  in  looking  up  counsel  as  you  have 
been  in  instructing  me  in  my  duties,  you  would  not 
now  be  unprepared  for  trial.  The  case  will  proceed." 
These  were  very  nearly  his  exact  words. 


Friday  noon.  The  trial  is  over,  all  except  ren- 
dering the  verdict  and  passing  sentence.  When 
the  Judge,  on  Wednesday  morning,  ruled  that  the 
case  should  be  tried  at  once  I  asked  that  I  be  allowed 
a  lawyer  to  help  me  obtain  a  jury  and  help  to  exam- 
ine witnesses  and  asked  that  David  Overmeyer  be 
called.  On  sending  for  Mr.  O.  he  could  not  be  found, 
being  detained  at  home,  as  was  afterward  ascertained, 
by  the  severe  illness  of  Lis  wife  and  child.  Mr,  Clem- 
ens, also,  was  sent  for,  but  could  not  be  raised.  Mr. 
Wilson,  Clerk  of  the  Court,  then  suggested  that  Col. 
Bradley,  a  lawyer  of  considerable  note,  and  who  hap- 
pened to  be  in  the  room,  be  called  to  take  the  place. 
On  a  little  consultation  with  him  I  decided  to  retain 
him  as  advisory  counsel.  The  jurors  were  then  ques- 
tioned in  the  usual  way  and  two  or  three  challenged 
or  rejected  for  cause.  Eleven  of  the  twelve  are  men 
of  families.  Two  or  three  acknowledged  to  being 
members  of  church,  one  remarking  that  he  was  "rath- 
er a  poor  church  member.',  Almost  without  excep- 
tion they  are  men  with  intelligent  countenances,  and 
if  the  case  is  lost  it  is  believed  it  will  be  because  of 


by  counsel  as  aforesaid. 
\  seal.  { 


MOSES  HARMAN. 
Affirmed  and  subscribed  to  before 
me  this  15th  day  of  April,  1890, 
J.  C.  Wilson,  Clerk. 


52 


adverse  rulings  of  the  court.  Thirteen  witnesses 
were  called  and  examined  for  the  prosecution,  includ- 
ing the  complaining  witness,  R.  D.  Simpson,  who  tes- 
tified that  his  reason  for  notifying  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral at  Washington  in  regard  to  the  matter,  was  the 
refusal  of  M.  Harman  to  exculpate  him  from  blame  in 
binding  over  to  court  Edwin  Walker  and  Lillian  Har- 
man at  the  time  of  their  arrest  in  Sept.,  '86,  for  alleg- 
ed violation  of  the  marriage  laws. 

Most  of  the  witnesses  testified  to  having  received 
copies  of  Lucifer,  containing  the  Markland  letter 
and  that  of  Celia  B.  Whitehead,  through  the  mail  at 
the  Valley  Falls  post  office.  The  efforts  of  the  pros- 
ecution were  mainly  directed  to  proving  that  the  in- 
dicted articles  were  obscene  in  the  meaning  of  the 
statute  and  that  the  defendant,  Moses  Harman,  had 
deposited  the  papers  containing  them  in  the  post  office 
for  delivery  or  for  transmission  through  the  mails. 

After  the  prosecution  had  closed  their  examina- 
tion of  witnesses,  Col.  Bradley,  my  counsel,  called  a 
half  dozen  or  more  of  their  witnesses  to  the  stand  to 
testify  as  to  the  general  reputation  of  the  defendant, 
for  honesty  and  good  citizenship.  With  one  excep- 
tion they  testified  that  his  reputation  in  these  respects 
was  excellent,  none  better,  the  same  also  as  to  his  con- 
duct toward  the  other  sex.  Considerable  time  was 
taken  up  with  these  witnesses  in  an  effort  by  counsel 
to  show  that  while  perfectly  sound  in  mind  in  other 
respects,  the  defendant  is  now,  and  was  at  the  time 
of  mailing  those  letters,  insane  in  regard  to  the  ques- 
tions pertaining  to  the  right  relations  of  the  sexes. 
This  part  of  the  line  of  defense  was,  of  course,  with- 
out the  sanction  or  co-operation  of  the  defendant 
himself.   

THE  VERDICT. 

Two  o'clock,  p.  m.  On  reaching  the  court  room 
in  company  with  Lillian,  I  found  the  jury  already  in 
their  box,  ready  to  report  a  verdict,  which  verdict 
Clerk  Wilson  proceeded  to  read.  On  four  counts  out 
of  the  seven  claimed  by  the  prosecution — "We,  the 
jury,  find  the  defendant  guilty  as  charged  in  the  in- 
dictment." The  judge  then  informed  me  that  anoth- 
er indictment  had  been  found  against  me  by  the 
grand  jury,  and  asked  if  I  wanted  a  trial  upon  that 
case  now.  I  replied  that  I  thought  not,  "You  are 
not  ready,  then?"  ''No,"  said  I.  A  continuance  was 
therefore  ordered  in  the  case  of  the  U.  S.  vs.  Moses 
Harman  for  publishing  and  mailing  the  O'Neill  letter. 


63 


This  is  written  in  the  marshalPs  office,  where  1 
am  now  a  close  prisoner.  Wishing  to  write  a  few  let- 
ters before  the  departure  of  my  friends,  I  will  close, 
not  knowing  how  soon  I  will  be  called  up  to  receive 
sentence.  M.  Harman. 


CONVICTED, 

Lucifer,  April  38,  »90. 

As  stated  elsewhere  under  the  head  of  "  Topeka 
Notes,"  the  editor  and  publisher  of  Lucifer  has  been 
tried  in  the  U.  S.  District  Court  for  Kansas,  and  found 
guilty  of  violating  the  postal  laws.  The  trial  occupied 
two  days,  Wednesday  and  Thursday  of  this  week. 
The  judge's  charge  was  given  to  the  jury  at  ten  a.  m., 
Friday  morning,  and  after  an  absence  of  four  hours 
they  brought  in  a  verdict  of  guilty  on  four  counts  out 
of  the  seven  that  had  finally  been  selected  by  the  pros- 
ecution, on  which  to  demand  conviction.  These 
counts  were  all  based  on  the  Markland  and  White- 
head letters,  the  other  two  indicted  articles,  viz: 
"Family  Secrets"  and  "Comments  on  Chavannes," 
were  practically  ignored  or  withdrawn  from  the  list 
of  articles  complained  of. 

Throughout  the  whole  trial,  the  prosecuting  at- 
torney, J.  W.  Ady,  showed  an  eagerness  to  convict, — 
showed  much  of  thevindictiveness  of  the  partisan  and 
but  little  of  the  spirit  of  fairness  that  should  charac- 
terize him  whose  unpleasant  duty  it  is  to  prosecute 
those  who,  through  force  of  circumstances  or  from 
bad  heredity,  may  have  become  criminals  against 
their  fellow  beings.  The  claim  of  good  faith,  or  good 
motive,  made  by  the  defendant  and  his  counsel,  was 
constantly  scouted  and  sneered  at  by  Mr.  Ady.  The 
sworn  statement  of  nearly  all  the  witnesses,  whether 
for  prosecution  or  defense,  that  the  editor  of  Lucifer 
is  personally  a  man  of  good  moral  character  was 
treated  with  scorn,  contempt  and  ridicule  by  the  U.  S. 
Attorney. 

Behind  Mr.  Ady,  and  frequently  whispering  in 
hirfear,  satR.  M.  McAfee,  alias  Chas.  Stratton,  alias 
Nellie  B.  Stratton,  etc.,  with  an  almost  constant 
smile,  or,  more  correctly  speaking,  grin,  upon  his  (or 
her)  face,  that  very  forcibly  recalled  the  cold,  scoffing, 
relentless  fiend  of  Goethe's  Faust,  known  as  Mephin- 
toplitles.  The  business  of  this  man(?)  is  thus  describ- 
ed by  the  Topeka  Capital  in  giving  its  account  of  the 
trial  of  the  cases  against  Lucifer: 

Special  Pogtoffice  Inspector  McAfee  is  also  here  to  assist  in  the 
presen  tation  of  evidence  in  the  case.  Mr,  McAfee  is  one  of  the  three 


54 


agents  of  the  Corastock  society  of  Boston  {.New  Yorkl,  the  object  of 
which  is  to  suppress  vice,  and  one  of  the  principal  duties  of  its  offi- 
cers is  to  look  after  the  sending  of  objectionable  matter  through  the 
mails.  He  has  a  commission  as  a  special  officer  of  the  United  States 
government,  but  draws  no  government  pay,  being  paid  by  his  soci- 
ety, which  is  doing  the  good  work.  Mr.  McAfee  has  been  the  in- 
strument of  bringing  many  vicious  and  dangerous  parties  to  jus- 
tice for  crimes  of  the  nature  of  the  one  now  before  the  court. 

Scraps  irom  Society  and  Law. 
James  Beason  thinks  that  the  black  woman  slave  could 
make  herself  safe  from  her  master's  abuse  of  her  womanhood 
by  reporting  him  to  his  wife.  Let  him  find,  if  he  can,  a 
servant  woman  who  dare  do  6uch  a  thing  and  hope  to  es- 
cape having  her  hair  and  eyes  torn  out.  Then  let  him  con- 
sider further  that  the  servant  woman  is  not  the  mere  prop- 
erty of  both  the  wife  and  husband,  nor  of  either,  while  his 
black  slave  was  the  property  of  the  wife,  and  both  that  of 
the  husband.  The  husband  could  not  demand  the  ser- 
vant woman  to  meet  him  on  a  given  pretext  at  what- 
ever place  he  might  consider  safe,  nor  would  he  dare  a  di- 
rect intimidation  of  her  by  the  crack  of  his  whip,  but  the 
black  woman  slave  had  no  protection  against  either  of  these 
persuasions.  It  is  in  the  family  as  it  is  in  society.  It  is  not 
the  moral  rottenness  that  is  objected  to,  but  the  uncov- 
ering of  it  it.  Woe  to  him  or  to  her  who  dares  expose  it, 
whether  or  not  he  or  she  be  the  victim  and  exposes  it  in  a 
hope  of  thereby  getting  protection  from  it.  It  is  not  the 
presence  of  the  filth,  but  the  aim  to  clear  it  away  that  shocks 
people's  sensibilities  so  severely.  Men  have  made  women 
to  their  order  through  the  establishing  of  the  church,  and  so 
they  find  themselves  safe,  while  they  set  women  to  loving 
all  punishments  for  evil  upon  their  own  sex,  and  so  the 
wife  would  play  upon  the  injured  instead  of  the  injuring 
party,  just  as  we  see  society  and  its  bull-dog  law — doing  the 
same  thing.  The  servant  girl  can  go  when  she  pleases,  yet 
she  would  not  dare  tell,  while  the  slave  woman  could  not 
go,  nor  have  rights  or  consideration  in  staying.  That  moral 
condition  is  seen  everywhere,  and  that  is  why  women  are  so 
degraded  and  men  so  base.  The  most  fiendishly  cruel  prin- 
ciple, and  weak  morality,  is  the  struggle  everywhere  4or  a 
false  respectability.  One  of  my  women  neighbors  said  of 
another  a  few  days  ago:  "It  is  all  true.  I  know  it,  as  peo- 
ple never  say  such  things  when  they  are  not  true,  especially 
in  speaking  of  a  woman."  The  one  who  said  this  did  it  in  a 
vain  hope  to  attract  my  attention  from  the  fact  that  much 
worse  is  said  of  herself,  and  she  seemed  in  ignorance  that 
she  was  indorsing  it  all.  Such  is  the  imbecility  pervading 
what  we  are  pleased  to  call  respectable  society.  It  is  but  a 
constant  and  a  no  less  conscienceless  and  desperate  strug- 


55 


gle  for  self -security  at  an  expense  to  others,  and  until  the 
costs  are  all  counted  in  their  ghastly  numbers,  and  we  try 
to  pay  dues  where  dues  are  due,  there  can  be  no  rescue  from 
this  depraving  social  system. 

H.  Bettes  thinks  that  a  social  chaos  is  aimed  at  m  the 
abolition  of  marriage.   I  see  no  moral  need  of  legal  strings 
upon  either  the  couples  who  truly  respect  and  love  each 
other  or  the  couples  who  do  not.    I  speak  alone  for  myself, 
it  is  not  matehood  that  is  objected  to,  but  the  master  and 
slave  sentiment  Christianity  has  put  upon  marriage,  and 
which  is  exercised  alike  on  all  because  of  the  church's  power 
in  law.   I  am  a  strict  advocate  of  monogamy  as  well  as 
abolition  of  marriage.   Promiscuity  seems  to  me  abomina- 
ble.  It  is  the  purifying  of  matehood,  the  makiDg  of  a  suc- 
cess, the  home  happy,  and  the  little  brood  in  it  loved,  loving 
and  full  of  good  promises,  that  I  labor  for.   The  chain  that 
binds  the  couple  should  be  within  their  hearts  and  minds, 
as,  when  they  are  independent  of  the  personality,  they  only 
chafe  and  irritate  the  flesh  to  no  possible  good.   We  must 
do  away  with  all  outside  props.    The  gods,  the  hopes,  the 
aspirations,  the  merits,  must  all  be  cultivated  within  us,  or 
we  can  but  be  mere  tops  set  spinning  irresponsibly  by  what- 
ever power  may  give  our  necks  a  twist. 

C.  L.  James  seems  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  it  is  the 
prevailing  violaiion  of  law  in  law  that  is  even  more  barbar- 
ous than  is  the  law  itself.  Let  him  investigate,  and  see  the 
fact  that  the  judges  and  lawyers  who  prate  most  about  the 
necessity  of  strict  enforcement  of  law,  go  deliberately  into 
the  court  rooms  to  violate  their  official  oaths  by  breaking 
the  same  law.  And  let  him  see  that  the  average  "law-abid- 
ing" juryman  no  less  thoroughly  violates  human  ob- 
ligation, while  he  airs  in  practice  his  contempt  for 
the  law  be  professes  to  respect.  A  young  woman  here 
has  just  bean  sent  enced  to  ten  years  imprisonment,  and  the 
grossest  defiance  of  the  law  wap  visible  in  !  every  feature 
of  the  trials  she  has  been  undergoing  here  one  year. 
(Yes,  James,  I  saio[it.)  In  obedience  to  law,  they  could 
never  have  even  arrested  her,  much  less  "found  her  guilty," 
as  they  did  not,  though  ^they  pretended  to  do  so.  She  was 
simply  selected  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  vindictive  god-cursed 
spirit  of  the  oity.  Dag  mar  Maeiager. 

Pent  Up  Heart  Cries. 

Wathena.  Kan.,  March  22, 1890. 
Ed.  Lucifer:   Have  just  returned  home;  found  a  num- 
ber of  copies  of  Lucifer,  Fair  Play  and  other  papers;  have 
read  them  carefully.    I  am  overwhelmed  with  the  import- 


58 

ance  of  the  subject  and  the  means  to  which  we  must  resort 
to  make  our  cause  understood.  Unearthed  our  buried 
family  skeletons  must  be,  if  it  must,  for  the  future  race,  if  too 
late  for  us.  Oh  God,  if  I  must  perish,  save  my  child!  Are 
not  these  awful  letters  the  pent-up  heart  cries  of  long  sup- 
pressed suffering?  the  cry  of  anguish,  wrung  from  us  by  the 
great  and  growing  evil?  By  the  gross  neglect  and  ignorance 
of  the  true  science  of  life? 

Do  not  these  awful  facts  prove  that  the  human  family 
represent  the  lowest  grade  of  animal  life  as  well  as  the 
highest?  Surely  there  are  specimens  of  the  human  family 
so  low  that  they  have  not  the  slightest  conception  of  the 
highest  grades  of  humanity,  while  there  are  also  specimens 
so  advanced,  so  pure  and  intelligent  that  it  is  impossible 
for  them  to  imagine  the  lowest  depths  to  which  the  forms 
of  man  can  descend. 

Women  are  the  least  suspicious  of  all,  and  often  find 
themselves  wedded  to  a  brute  for  life.  What  can  she  do? 
and  the  longer  she  lives  thus,  the  more  perplexing  becomes 
her  situation.  What  can  he  do,  if  perchance  he  finds  he  has 
married  one  he  loves  not?  Why,  he  can  put  his  hand  on  the 
money  and  go.  He  never  finds  himself  bound  down  with 
children,  born  and  unborn,  and  penniless,  too.  She  to  get 
the  means  of  escape  must  appeal  to  her  captor — ha! 

As  for  the  language  used  in  the  letters,  we  will  find 
everywhere  language  is  used  necessary  to  tell  the  story. 
See  Ezekiel,  16  chap.;  Judith,  12  chap.,  16  verse;  Isaiah,  17 
chap.;  Solomon's  Songs,  7  chap.;  Genesis,  19  chap.;  Hosea, 
2  chap.  Close  the  book  and  say  "Holy-Book — Precious 
Treasure  thou  art  mine"!  that  will  make  it  pure  and  legal 
custom,  you  know!  See  newspapers  full  of  crime,  murder, 
theft,  vulgarity,  the  most  atrocious  and  blood-curdling, 
unfit  for  family  perusal  and  contemplation.  Still  they  must 
be  permitted,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  particular  object  in 
their  publication  other  than  to  gratify  the  morbid  appre- 
ciation of  such  works. 

It  has  been  said  that  one-half  of  the  world  don't  know 
how  the  other  half  live.  I  believe  there  are  true,  noble  men 
who  would  rise  and  work  for  the  rescue  if  they  could  only 
know  one-half  of  the  concealed  suffering.  I  will 
give  an  illustration  of  man's  unthoughtful  career.  Said  a 
big  burly  Probate  Judge,  "your  child  don't  seem  to  have 
good  substantial  food,  don't  you  think  she  ought  to  have 
more  nourishment,  madam?"  Madam  was  a  thin,  pale 
widow,  who  had  seen  care  and  sorrow.  "Sir,"  said  the 
widow,  with  flashing  eyes,  "the  child  has  the  same  that  I 


57 

hare;  that  is  all  we  can  get.  My  income  is  $180  per  year 
when  my  house  is  rented,  but  rented  or  not  my  taxes  are 
$80  per  year,  and  you  have  eaten  $8  of  her  bread  and  butter 
this  year,  and  I  pay  $9  per  year  for  being  her  guardian,  now 
what  have  I  for  her?  Protective  laws  indeed !  Protect  the 
widow  and  the  orphan  and  preserve  the  orphan's  money  lest 
the  mother  steal  or  waste  it!  A  force  of  county  officials  set 
to  watch  the  mother,  to  dictate  to  her  her  duties  and  her 
bonds,  and  to  tax  her  for  said  services.  To  the  orphans 
and  widows  give  credit  for  your  own  fine  good  health  and 
portly  form,  Sir!" 

Old  oreeds  and  customs  shadow  our  land!  Oh!  that  we 
could  shake  them  off.  Are  we  not  all  bound  in  'some  de- 
gree to  some  creed  or  ism  by  force  of  custom?  !  Have  we 
not  grown  up  with  it,  and  are  we  hardly  conscious  ^>f  it? 
Are  we  not  compelled  to  join  some  society  or  bear  the  scorn  - 
fal  criticisms  of  self  righteous  partisans?  Said  a  little  girl 
onoe,  not  many  years  ago, 

"Ma,  which  church  are  you  going  to  join?"  "Why  not 
any,  1  think."  "Why  Ma,  why  not?  we  want  to  know  where 
we  belong.  All  the  Methodist  girls  in  the  school,,  wont 
speak  to  the  Campbellite  girls,  they  draw  back  their  dresses 
and  won*  t  touch  them,  and  then  the  Campbellite.  girls,  treat 
us  the  same  way."  "Well,  my  dear,  you  ought  tal^^hank- 
ful  that  you  are  not  making  a  public  show  of  holiness,  that 
you  do  not  belong  to  either  of  these  classes.  You  ought  to 
be  glad  that  you  are  free;  if  you  once  get  into  the  meshes, 
and  happen  to  vary  from  the  old  set  rule  you  would  be  set 
upon  by  a  set  of  self  constituted  judges,  and  you  would 
have  to  suffer  many  wrongs  for  the  liberties  you  had  taken, 
or  they  had  imagined  you  had  taken.  In  these  creeds  you 
must  follow  your  leader  faithfully.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
happiness  or  charity,  but  it  is  'come  in  and  do  as  we  do/  or 
get  out  with  you,  vile  sinner." 

Another  old  custom  is  to  join  the  church  young. 
Marry!  marry!  yes,  fulfill  the  scripture  or  fortify  your  lives 
for  the  sure  storm  of  sarcasm;  raise  all  the  children  you  can, 
young  woman,  are  you  not  told  this  is  you  mission?^  'Fade! 
decay!  die!  (don't complain).  Go  to  dust,  or  grass*  be  pa- 
tient! Consider  your  mission.  Don't  try  to  help*  ydurself. 
Your  funeral  sermon  will  ring  loud  and  long  in  your  praise; 
you  will  be  a  model  called  away  by  a  wise  dispensation;  too 
good  to  stay;  called  to  your  reward.  No  matter  how  many 
poor  little  babes  left  behind,  you've  filled  your 
mission,  followed  the  custom,  ah!  Martyr  mothers,  when 
will  the  world  cease  to  mourn  the  lost  mothers  that  die  in 
vain?  Were  any  good  attained  we  could  and  would  submit, 


58 


but  what  we  need  ia  robust  mothers  who  can  raise  their 
children  and  live  their  own  natural  lives  in  an  honorable 
and  natural  way.  Mrs.  E.  A.  Abbey. 

THE  TRIAL. 

Lucifer,  Aprli85,'90. 

As  already  briefly  told  in  our  issue  of  the  18th, 
the  late  trial  of  the  case  against  Lucifer  in  the  Fed- 
eral court  was  technically  and  legally  a  failure,  so  far 
as  the  defense  is  concerned.  This  result  is  to  be  re- 
gretted, 

Jfa,  Because  of  the  consequences  to  individuals, 
involving,  as  it  does,  the  possible  if  not  probable  life- 
long imprisonment  of  the  defendant,  Moses  Harman, 
and  the  possible  if  not  probable  absorption  of  what 
little  property  he  may  have  saved  from  his  forty  or 
fifty  years  of  hard  labor;  also,  because  of  the  proba- 
bleconsequences  to  those  who  are  intimately  associ- 
ated with  or  bound  to  him  by  natural  ties — chief 
among  whom  are  his  conjugal  companion,  a  chronic 
invalid — a  cancer  patient  of  several  years  continuance, 
who  has  already  lost  her  palate  and  a  considerable 
part  of  her  upper  jaw  by  surgical  operation — also,  his 
aged  and  infirm  mother  now  in  her  eightythird  year, 
who  has  never  lost  any  of  her  maternal  solicitude  for 
the  welfare  of  her  children,  and  to  whom  the  con- 
viction and  imprisonment  of  her  eldest  son  will  be 
like  a  poniard  to  the  heart. 

2d,  A  more  serious  cause  of  regret,  however, 
than  any  possible  loss  of  liberty  or  property  by  the 
defendant,  or  any  pain  and  anxiety  to  relatives  and 
friends,  is  the  natural,  the  logical  effect  of  this  defeat 
upon  the  cause  of  personal  liberty  and  of  human  ad- 
vancement. Every  such  defeat  in  the  courts  encour- 
ages the  champions  of  paternalistic  despotism  to 
make  renewed  assaults  upon  the  citadel  of  personal 
right,  or  civil  liberty,  and  at  the  same  time  every  such 
defeat  discourages  those  who  labor  and  hope  for  the 
dawn  of  a  better  day — a  day  in  which  there  shall  be 
no  infringement  upon  personal  or  citizen  rights,  a 
day  in  which  woman's  right  to  self-ownership  shall 
not  be  infringed  or  invaded  by  and  through  the  pro- 
tection given  the  invader  by  man-made  statutes. 

To  understand  fully  the  situation  and  to  be  en- 
abled to  properly  fix  the  responsibility  for  and  of  the 
defeat  aforesaid,  I  would  request  the  candid  reader  to 
go  over  again  the  fragmentary  statements  made  in 
last  week's  Lucifer,  especially  the  affidavits  of  Geo. 
Harman  and  myself.     Then  I  would  request  him  or 


59 


her  to  remember  that  I  never  for  a  moment  regarded 
Col.  Bradley  as  the  manager  of  the  defense.  When, 
as  stated  in  the  said  affidavits  and  explanatory  "Notes," 
I  found  myself  forced  into  trial  without  the  aid  of 
counsel  of  my  choice,  I  felt  that  the  state  of  my 
health  was  such  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of 
standing  the  strain  of  a  prolonged  fight,  even  if  I 
had  been  well  versed  in  court  usages  and  technicali- 
ties. I  therefore  asked  that  I  be  Allowed  a  lawyer — 
not  to  conduct  my  defense,  this  I  all  the  while  meant 
to  do  for  myself,  but  simply  to  protect  me  in  my  cit- 
izen and  legal  rights.  This  request  was  at  once 
granted  by  the  court;  I  asked  for  Messrs.  Overmeyer 
and  Clemens,  and  when,  as  already  related,  they  could 
not  be  found  I  accepted  the  suggestion  of  Clerk  Wil- 
son and  allowed  Col.  Bradley,  an  entire  stranger  to 
me,  to  be  appointed  by  the  court  to  assist  in  the  de- 
fense, never  for  a  moment  supposing  that  this  ap- 
pointment gave  him  any  right  to  manage  or  control 
me  or  my  case,  any  further  than  I  saw  fit  to  permit 
him  so  to  do.  I  asked  him  the  direct  question,  "Will 
I  be  allowed  to  make  my  own  statement  to  the  jury 
and  in  my  own  way?1'  and  the  reply  was  an  emphatic 
affirmative. 

With  this  understanding,  and  with  no  other  on 
my  part,  viz:  that  I  was  to  be  my  own  lawyer,  and 
that  the  real  defense  would  be  made  by  myself  (or  by 
Mr.  Chamberlain  if  he  should  arrive  in  time)  I  al- 
lowed Col.  Bradley  to  open  the  case  —allowed  him  to 
put  in  the  plea  of  irresponsibility  in  the  mailing  of 
the  alleged  obscene  matter,  and  also  the  plea  of  mon- 
omania, or  of  insanity.  All  this  I  considered  as  mere 
by-play,  and  that  it  would  enable  me  to  husband  my 
energies  and  to  collect  and  arrange  the  ammunition 
for  the  real  struggle.  

Right  here,  as  it  now  appears,  I  made  the  fatal 
blunder;  this  was  the  turning  point  in  the  battle,  pro- 
vided, of  course,  we  admit  that  there  ever  was  even  a 
fighting  chance  for  victory  for  the  defense  in  this 
court — which  admission  or  which  hypothesis,  by  the 
way,  I  now  consider  inadmissible.  We  might  have 
hung  the  jury,  perhaps,  but  the  instructions  of  the 
court  were  such  as  to  preclude  all  rational  hope  of  ac- 
quittal. However  that  may  be,  it  now  appears  that 
when  I  allowed  the  court  to  appoint  counsel  for  the 
defense,  that  moment  I  lost  control  of  the  case — lost  the 
legal  right  to  be  my  own  defender. 


Taking  up  the  narration  of  facts  at  the  point  at 


«0 


which  it  was  dropped  in  last  week's  issue:  After  ev- 
idence for  prosecution  was  all  in,  and  after  experts 
had  been  summoned  to  hear  and  adjudge  the  point  as 
to  the  sanity  or  insanity  of  the  defendant,  I  was  put 
on  the  witness  stand  to  testify  in  my  own  case.  Af- 
ter answering  to  the  usual  questions  in  regard  to  age, 
nativity,  education,  employments,  etc.,  I  was  ques- 
tioned in  reference  to  the  publication  called  Lucifer, 
and  my  responsibility  therein  or  therefor.  To  this 
question  I  replied  at  some  length,  telling  the  jury 
how,  in  the  summer  of  1880  (current  calendar)  Lucifer 
first  saw  the  light — that  it  came  into  existence  as  the 
exponent  and  defender  of  the  principle,  ttie  right,  of 
free  discussion  on  all  questions  of  human  interest; 
that  its  platform,  its  columns,  had  always  been  open 
and  free  to  the  defenders  of  all  doctrines,  creeds  or 
opinions,  whether  of  Jew  or  Christian,  Infidel  or  Mo- 
hammedan, Anarchist  or  Authoritarian,  Socialist  or 
Individualist,  the  only  test  or  requirement  being  that 
of  good  faith,  good  intent,  coupled  with  freedom  from 
malicious  or  slanderous  attacks  upon  peisons.  That 
in  accordance  with  this  basic  principle  upon  which 
Lucifer  had  come  into  existence  the  Markland  and 
Whitehead  letters  had  been  given  a  place  in  its  col- 
umns, its  editor  not  assuming  the  right  of  censorship 
over  the  matter  or  manner  of  his  contributors,  except 
in  the  cases  or  for  the  reasons  just  mentioned. 


When  questioned  as  to  whether  I  had  any  other 
object  in  publishing  the  Markland  letter  than  that  of 
vindicating  the  right  of  free  discussion  and  free  pub- 
lication, I  answered,  Yes,  that  I  wished  to  vindicate 
woman's  right  to  own  and  control  her  own  person, 
her  own  maternal  functions,  in  marriage  as  well  as 
out  of  marriage,  and  because  I  wished  to  join  my  own 
protest  to  that  of  Mr.  Markland  against  all  such  mar- 
ital outrages  as  that  related  by  the  mother  of  the 
young  wife  spoken  of  in  said  letter.  When  asked  if 
I  did  not  know  that  such  plain  talk  about  sex  matters 
was  or  is  obscene  and  indecent,  I  replied,  No,  1  did 
not.  I  knew  that  the  statement  of  facts  was  or  is 
shocking,  extremely  so,  but  that  I  considered  the  use 
of  words  by  Mr.  Markland  to  be  legitimate  and  prop- 
er, although,  from  our  preconceived  notions  and  pre- 
judices, we  might  consider  the  wording  objectionable. 
I  told  how  the  letter,  or  its  publication,  was  held  for 
weeks  or  months  in  abeyance  while  I  mentally  dis- 
cussed the  pros  and  cons,  that  is,  while  I  weighed  the 
reasons  for  and  against  its  publication  without  edi- 


61 


torial  pruning  or  modification,  and  how  the  pros  final- 
ly prevailed  over  the  cons. 


Similar  questions  were  asked  and  similar  answers 
given  in  regard  to  the  publication  of  the  Whiiehead 
letter.  I  was  asked  whether  I  considered  the  tenden- 
cy of  such  publications  to  be  in  the  interest  of  good 
morals,  and  the  reply  was  a  most  emphatic  affirma- 
tive. I  showed,  or  tried  to  show,  that  the  object  of 
Mrs.  Whitehead,  whose  reputation  as  a  writer  and 
teacher  was  of  the  highest  and  best,  was  in  the  inter- 
est of  continence  and  personal  purity  in  sex-relations, 
and  against  licentiousness,  against  unlimited  and  un- 
bridled indulgence.  In  short,  that  to  ask  what  I  con- 
sidered the  tendency  of  such  publication,  after  read- 
ing the  letter  itself,  was  simply  amazing  on  account 
of  the  palpable  absurdity  of  such  question,  When 
asked  if  there  was  any  hesitation  over  or  about  the 
insertion  of  the  Whitehead  letter,  I  answered:  None 
whatever.  The  reputation  of  Mrs.  W.  as  a  writer  on 
reformatory  subjects,  and  her  record  as  an  advocate 
of  the  most  exalted  purity  in  thought,  word  and  deed, 
was  such  as  to  preclude  the  idea  of  need  of  editorial 
pruning  or  revision. 


"Family  Secrets,"  or  the  "Millerite  Story,"  one 
of  the  four  indicted  articles,  was  ignored  by  the  pros- 
ecution— the  judge  having  given  it  as  his  opinion  that 
it  was  an  old  chestnut,  and  not  within  the  intent  or 
meaning  of  the  prohibitory  postal  law.  The  remain- 
ing article,  "Comments  on  Chavannes" — although  not 
considered  obscene  by  the  judge  in  giving  his  written 
"opinion"  upon  these  four  articles — was  made  the 
subject  of  much  cross-questioning  by  the  prosecution, 
as  well  as  direct  questioning  by  the  defense.  It  seem- 
ed to  be  thft  object  of  the  prosecution  to  impress  it 
upon  the  jury  that  "Dianism,"  "Alphism,"  etc.,  is 
something  beastly,  something  demoralizing,  and  that 
a  man  who  taught  this  doctrine,  or  these  d  octnnes,  or 
who  allowed  others  to  teach  them  through  his  paper, 
is  a  criminally  immoral  man  and  should  be  punished 
on  general  principles. 

In  reply  to  these  searching  inquiries  the  defend- 
ant said  he  did  not  believe  "Diamsm"  and  "Alphism" 
to  be  of  immoral  tendency — said  that  they  both  inoul- 
cate  self-control  and  moderation,  a  nd  that  their  advo- 
cates oppose  excessive  indulgence  of  the  sexual  appe- 
tite. Upon  these  points,  however,  the  defendant  did 
not  profess  to  speak  with  confidence  or  with  authori- 


(12 


ty— said  that  he  had  never  made  "Dianism"  or  "Alph- 
ism"  subjects  of  special  study,  but  that  on  the  princi- 
ple of  hearing  all  sides  of  all  questions  he  had  allowed 
these  matters  to  be  discussed  to  a  limited  extent,  by 
others,  through  Lucifer's  columns. 

After  doing  what  they  could  to  prejudice  the 
jury  against  me  as  an  advocate  of  these  heresies,  the 
prosecutors,  Ady  and  his  whispering  partner,  R.  M. 
Williams,  of  St.  Louis,  alias,  R.  M.  McAfee,  alias, 
Chas.  Stratton,  etc.,  concluded  to  drop  that  article  al- 
so, and  in  the  final  make-up  of  their  slate  they  asked 
for  conviction  on  the  Markland  and  Whitehead  let- 
ters only. 

More  Letters  to  the  Judge. 

To  Judge  C.  G.  Foster:  Honored  Sir:  I  wish  you 
could  decide  the  Harman  case  from  a  woman's  stand-point. 
I  wish  you  could  see  that  the  infliction  and  imposition  of 
such  terrible  wrongs  on  the  mothers  of  the  race  is  a  greater 
crime  against  government  than  the  exposure  of  such  wrongs. 
Breeding  criminals  faster  than  the  government  can  build 
prisons  to  confine  them,  is  the  result  of  these  wrongs.  If 
you  could  see  that  obscenity  is  more  in  the  vile  construction 
which  viciously  organized  minds  put  upon  everything  they 
see  and  hear,  you  would  see  that  it  is  in  the  mind  of  the 
prosecutor  more  than  in  Mr.  Herman's. 

It  reminds  me  of  the  Dutch  vender  of  second  hand 
olothing,  when  a  oustomer  objected  to  a  suit  because  of  its 
filthy  smell,  he  said:  "You  dmks  dose  glose  schmell  pad ; 
not  zo,  dot  vas  me  I"  Just  so  with  people  of  low  moral  at- 
tributes. Everything  from  their  stand-point  smells  bad,  is 
obscene. 

Now  while  the  U.  S.  censorship  is  prosecuting  Harman 
for  exposing  wrongs  that  should  be  exposed  and  some  means 
taken  to  right  them,  the  U.  S.  mails  are  full  of  obscene  cards 
and  books  which  mothers  find  in  their  boys'  pockets  when 
repairing  their  garments.  Not  a  thousand  miles  from  To- 
peka  on  a  board  fence  was  a  caricature  which  I  would  like 
to  have  the  U.  S.  censorship  see.  My  attention  was  called 
to  it  by  hearing  some  boys  going  home  from  school  trying 
to  make  the  girls  read  the  writing  descriptive  of  the  draw- 
ing. I  called  another  friend's  attention  to  it.  He  said:  "I 
wish  Mr.  Comstock  and  Judge  Foster  could  see  that." 

It  is  from  such  things  that  a  race  of  Qbscenists  are  being 
educated. 

On  a  Sunday  not  long  ago  I  attended  church;  the  text 
was  from  Nicodemus'  visit  to  Christ,  asking  him  "how  can  a 
man  enter  a  second  time  into  his  mother's  womb?" 


63 

Moral:  I  wish  the  U.  S.  protectorate  could  have  heard 
what  some  boys  just  merging  to  manhood  said. 

The  suppression  of  vice  is  all  right,  but  the  censorship 
methods  are  all  wrong. 

That  man  is  either  knave  or  fool, 

Or  bigot  plotting  crime, 
Who  for  advancement  of  his  kind 

Is  wiser  than  his  time. 
For  him  the  hemlock  shall  distill. 

For  him  the  ax  be  bared, 
For  him  the  gibbet  shall  be  built, 

For  him  the  stake  prepared. 
Him  shall  the  wrath  and  scorn  of  man 

Pursue  with  deadly  aim 
And  malice,  envy,  spite  and  lies 

Shall  desecrate  his  name. 

But  Truth  shall  conquer  at  the  last, 

For  round  and  round  we  run 
And  ever  the  right  comes  uppermost 

And  ever  is  justice  done. 

Chab.  Maokay. 

Yours  for  Justice,  Right  and  Truth,        Clabk  Luce. 

Another  Woman's  Story  ot  Wrong  and  Outrage. 

Pittsburg,  Pa.,  1725  Sarah  St.,  April  26, 1890. 

Much  Respected  Editor  of  Lucifer:  Knowing  full  well 
that  at  the  present  time  you  are  being  overrun  with  cor- 
respondence, and  for  that  reason  I  may  be  infringing  upon 
sacred  time,  yet  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  write  and 
assure  you  of  my  heartfelt  sympathy  and  admiration  in 
your  time  of  trial.  I  am  more  sorry  than  I  can  tell,  to  find 
that  you  have  lost;  but  it  is  ever  thus.  Those  who  have  had 
experience  in  our  courts  will  always  find  law  in  abundance, 
but  justice?  I  for  my  part  have  failed  to  find  a  sign  of  it. 
I  have  found  how  pitiless  and  cruel  the  law  can  be  to  those 
who  dare  to  deviate  ever  so  slightly  from  the  course  it  has 
marked  out.  The  shame,  the  humiliation  it  heaps  upon  the 
suffering  heart — I  could  a  tale  of  woe  unfold  of  woman's 
wrongs  and  woman's  suffering.  I  am  tempted  to  do  so,  and 
think  will  yield  to  that  temptation. 

It  is  the  story  of  a  girl  of  sixteen,  full  of  life  and  health 
when  she  became  a  wife.  Possessed  of  a  rich  love  nature? 
there  was  little  she  would  ncu  have  done  for  the  sake  of  her 
love,  but  filled  also  with  a  love  of  liberty  she  soon  chafed 
beneath  commands.  The  bonds  she  thought  so  pleasing  at 
first  soon  became  galling  chains,  She  was  a  slave  in  every 
sense  of  the  word,  mentally  and  sexually,  never  was  she 
free  from  his  brutal  outrages,  morning,  noon  and  night,  up 
almost  to  the  very  hour  her  baby  was  born,  and  before  she 
was  again  strong  enough  to  move  about.  Oh!  how  she 
learned  to  hate,  to  despise,  to  loathe  that  man — no,  not  man 
but  inhuman  brute!  Added  to  that,  she  was  the  victim  of 
his  insane  jealousy.  Because  she  was  unable  to  give  him  a 
sexual  response  he  blamed  her  for  favoring  other  men,  and 


64 

would  often  threaten  her  life  with  revolver  and  knife.  She 
loathed  his  touch  as  that  of  a  vile  reptile,  and  yet  wu 
forced  to  submit. 

I  have  read  in  Lucifer  of  some  one  likening  a  man  some- 
times to  an  elephant.  Often  did  her  experience  last  an  hour 
or  two,  and  one  night  she  will  never  forget,  the  outrage 
lasted  exactly  four  hours.  The  woman  that  never  bad  such 
an  experience  oan  not  realize  the  fearful  horror  of  it.  Suoh 
was  the  life  she  led,  until  she  was  often  upon  the  verge  of 
insanity.  Added  to  his  jealousy  and  its  results  were  the 
persecutions  and  insults  of  other  men,  who  believed  a  man 
would  not  be  jealous  without  a  cause.  She  would  not  dare 
breathe  of  this,  as  the  husband  in  turn  would  say  that  it 
was  her  bold  and  unwomanly  conduct  that  was  the  oauso 
of  such  results,  whereas  in  reality  she  was  very  pure  minded 
and  in  consequence  of  the  life  she  led  was  throughly  dis< 
gusted  with  sex  relations. 

But  with  all  this  he  had  never  been  able  to  quell  or  sub- 
due her  high  spirit.  She  rebelled  against  suoh  treatment, 
and  would  only  submit  to  brute  force.  She  led  this  life  for 
seven  years,  she  had  been  three  times  a  mother,  her  first 
born,  a  boy,  she  laid  in  the  grave.  With  her  remaining  two, 
a  girl  of  four  and  a  boy  of  two,  she  one  day  left  him  and  re- 
turned to  her  parents,  and  nothing  was  able  to  induce  her 
to  return.  Then  followed  a  divorce  suit.  Oh!  the  shame, 
the  humiliation,  the  agony  she  underwent  at  that  time. 
But  it  was  over  at  last,  and  she  was  once  more  a  free  woman, 
but  his  vile  persecutions  were  not  yet  at  an  end.  He 
blacked  her  fair  fame  wherever  he  could,  and,  as  is  always 
the  case,  found  many  believers.  But  she  struggled  bravely 
on,  maintaining  herself  and  children  by  the  work  of  her 
hands.  It  was  hard  uphill  work,  but  she  held  her  head 
high  and  proudly  gave  back  scorn  for  scorn. 

When  her  boy  was  nine  years  old,  his  father  stole  him 
from  her.  This  was  another  blow,  as  more  than  anything 
else  she  dreaded  the  influence  under  which  he  would  grow 
up,  but  money  being  the  ruling  power  she  was  once  more 
forced  to  submit.  Her  daughter  remains,  and  is  now  a 
blooming  girl  of  seventeen,  whom  she  would  rather  see  laid 
in  her  grave  than  that  one  day  her  mother's  experience 
should  be  her  own. 

And  it  is  for  the  publication  of  such  stories  of  suffering 
and  ffrong  that  a  noble  man  is  doomed  to  be  outraged  by 
the  law.  I  can  call  it  nothing  less.  It  is  only  a  short  time 
sinoe  I  first  read  Lucifeb.  Until  then  I  had  not  known 
that  such  a  paper  was  in  existence.  I  was  well  pleased  with 
it  in  every  respect,  and  was  only  too  willing  to  see  it  in  the 


65 


hands  of  my  young  daughter.  I  believe  that  marriage  as 
an  institution,  in  connection  with  our  present  social  system, 
is  an  utter,  a  miserable  failure.  Although  I  am  a  married 
woman  myself  I  have  a  huSband  who  as  far  as  the  sex  rela- 
tions are  concerned  is  an  angel  of  consideration,  and  is  very 
kind  in  many  repects,  according  me  many  liberties  that  are 
surprising,  considering  that  I  am  a  radical  and  he  a  sup- 
porter of  the  church,  yet  that  very  fact  also  shows  the  lack 
of  perfect  harmony,  and  I  repeat,  marriage  is  a  failure,  but 
I  also  believe  that  little  can  be  done  to  better  the  condi- 
tions of  the  sexes  until  there  has  been  an  entire  economic 
revolution — not  that  I  would  advise  to  suspend  work  in  that 
line  until  the  revolution  has  taken  place;  on  the  contrary, 
go  on  with  the  noble  work.  It  is  one  of  the  strongest  argu- 
ments we  have  that  that  revolution  should  take  place. 

Yours  fraternally,  Thekesa  Hughes. 


COURT  ISOTES. 

Lucifer,  Aprh  25,  '90. 

Wednesday  noon.  We,  that  is,  1ST.  H.  Harman, 
my  bondsman,  and  myself,  reported  according  to  prom- 
ise at  the  marshall's  office  at  two  o'clock  yesterday. 
From  Col.  Bradley,  who  still  acts  as  my  counselor,  I 
learned  that  a  motion  for  a  new  trial  on  the  old  indict- 
ments had  been  filed  by  him,  and  that  arguments  on 
this  motion  would  probably  be  heard  today  or  tomor- 
row (Thursday).  There  is  an  embezzlement  case  now 
being  tried  in  the  court,  involving  the  Lawrence  (Ks.) 
postoffice,  that  in  all  probability  will  occupy  tne  at- 
tention of  the  Judge  for  a.  day  or  two  longer;  mean- 
time nothing  will  be  done  towards  determining  the 
question  of  new  trial  on  the  old  indictments  against 
Lucifer. 


Saturday  morning.  I  have  not  yet  interviewed 
any  of  the  jurymen  who  were  impanelled  to  try  the 
case  of  the  IT.  S.  vs.  Lucifer,  but  my  counsel,  Col. 
Bradley,  says  that  three  of  the  twelve  held  out  for 
acquittal  on  all  the  counts,  and  that  they  finally  gave 
in,  after  a  four  hours'  siege,  on  condition  that  all  the 
twelve  jurors  should  sign  a  request  or  recommenda- 
tion to  the  judge  to  give  me  the  lowest  penalty  nam- 
ed in  the  law,  which  penalty  the  district  attorney  had 
told  the  jury  might  be  a  fine  of  fifty  cents.  (This  lat- 
ter statement,  however,  would  seem  to  be  a  gross  and 
wilful  perversion  of  truth  on  the  part  of  the  district 
attorney.)  This  fact,  viz:  that  the  verdict  of  "guilty" 
was  not  unanimous,  is  one  of  the  grounds  of  asking  a 
new  trial.  Another  plea  is  that  the  court  erred  in  in- 
structing the  jury  that  it  did  not  matter  what  the  de- 
fendant thought,  or  might  have  thought,  in  regard  to 
the  character  of  the  indicted  articles, — i.  <?.,  that  it 


66 


made  no  difference  whether  M.  Barman  thought  them 
obscene  or  not — thus  ignoring  altogether  the  intent  or 
motive  in  the  said  publications. 

1  he  court  seems  to  be  taking  plenty  of  time  to 
consider  whether  it  will  hear  arguments  on  a  motion 
for  new  trial.  Meanwhile  defendant  can  only  exer- 
cise the  grace  of  patience.  It  is  more  expensive  but 
much  more  comfortable  to  board  at  a  hotel  and  pay 
$1.25  a  day  instead  of  taking  prison  fare  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  people. 


A  Strong  Expression. 

Santa  Crcz,  Cal.,  April  27,  '90. 

Friend  Herman :  Your  paper  j uet  received  this  moment 
and  I  hasten  to  learn  of  your  fate,  and  notwithstanding  my 
mau y  fears  I  was  shocked  at  the  word  "Convicted."  I  nev- 
er indulged  in  a  profane  oath  m  my  life  (except  when  on 
the  witness  stand),  but  had  it  not  been  for  the  presence  of  a 
lady  I  would  have  said  a  bible  word  in  a  just  cause,  and  I 
would  swear  by  all  the  gods  of  whom  I  have  any  knowledge 
that  you  are  morally  and  legally  entitled  to  $30,000  for  false 
imprisonment.  Not  altogether  for  your  personal  damages, 
but  for  establishing  a  precedent  for  Cotton-Mather  Chris- 
tians to  circumvent  the  liberties  of  the  press. 

I  cannot  believe  all  the  rebel  batteries  turned  upon  one 
of  the  greatest  of  humanitarians  are  personal.  It  would  be 
a  step  in  the  direction  of  Church  over  State  and  the  Sunday 
law  or  any  other  infamous  proposition  for  Christians  fo  feed 

upon  persecution.   If  there  is  a  literal  (well,  I  forget 

the  name  of  the  country)  I  should  expect  that  Comstock 
and  all  his  cops  were  found  scavengers  around  the  palace  of 
Pluto. 

I  cannot  descend  to  the  usual  arguments  on  this  occa- 
sion, as  I  would  have  to  acknowledge  some  grounds  for  the 
decision.  I  sincerely  believe  what  1  will  unhesitatingly  as- 
sert.  If  some  of  my  millionaire  neighbors  would  slip  $12,- 

000  or  $15,000  into  my  pocket,  I  could  go  to  Kansas  and 
make  the  acquaintance  of  that  court  and  jury,  Comstock 
district  attorney,  etc.,  then  go  into  court  without  an  associ- 
ate attorney  and  without  more  money  than  the  price  of  my 
ticket  home,  and  I  could  make  Bro.  Harman's  charaoter  as 
clear  and  pure  as  Queen  Vic's  big  diamond,  and  I  would  be 
credited  with  a  "bigger  speech"  th  an  any  other  man  could 
make  (who  had  forgotten  more  in  one  Christmas  week  than 

1  ever  knew).  The  jurymen  would  stare  at  each  other  and 
wonder  at  their  own  indiscretion  and  found  their  own  in- 
nocence in  the  hereditary  trait  of  "man's  inhumanity  to 


07 

man."  And  when  we  had  concluded,  the  foreman  of  that 
jury  would  have  announced  from  his  Beat:  "We,  the  jury, 
find  from  the  new  light  thrown  on  the  case  that  there  is  no 
cause  of  action  and  that  Mr.  Harman's  character  remains  as 
brilliant  as  the  evening  star." 

Then  we  could  have  turned  upon  Comstock,  prosecuted 
him  for  false  imprisonment,  and  with  that  same  jury  (after 
having  a  little  pleasantness  in  privacy)  we  could  have  sen- 
tenced this  notorious  plaintiff  until  the  weakness  of  our 
compassion  had  given  way.  And  yet,  if  all  this  figure  was 
verified,  we  have  human  charity  enough  to  find  for  this  jury 
mitigating  precedents  which  would  elevate  them  far  above 
the  meanest  of  culprits.  Precedents  are  planks  for  the 
foundation  of  law,  and  when  men  iu  high  places  would  vir- 
tually repeal  the  Chinese  exclusion  law,  saying  they  "would 
not  tag  them  like  dogs,"  but  for  the  thousands  of  golden 
Chinese  gods  these  Republican  congressmen  would  tag  their 
own  constituents  with  a  tag  more  damnable  than  the  Mon- 
golian one,  and  compel  the  so-called  free  American  peers  to 
subsist  in  servitude  competing  with  Chinese  slavery. 

What  more  could  be  expected  of  a  Kansas  court  and 
jury  in  the  interest  of  Comstock  degradation,  Church  and 
fanaticism.  I  would  hate  to  be  fouud  dead  in  Kansas,  al- 
though on  sober  second  thought  am  compelled  to  believe 
that  there  are  more  than  two  hundred  good  people  in  Kan- 
sas. 

In  conclusion  1  must  pay  a  tribute  to  Christian  Comstock 
— he  should  not  have  a  burial  in  a  free  reputed  country;  he 
should  be  taken  to  a  Christian  desert,  where  human  foot- 
prints never  mark  the  bleak  sands,  where  the  cypress  with- 
ers and  the  evergreen  dies,  and  there  buried  a  thousand  feet 
below  the  simoons,  face  downward,  with  the  inscription  up- 
on his  back— "iVo  Resurrection."  Ika  H.  Wilson. 


SENTENCED. 

Lucitkk  May  2,  '90. 

County  Jail,  Topeka,  Kans.,  April  :J0,  290. 

Dear  Friends  and  Patrons  oj  Lucifer:  At  2  p,  m. 
today  arguments  were  heard  ou  motion  for  new  trial. 
As  intimated  in  last  issue  of  Lucifer,  the  chief 
grounds  upon  which  Messrs.  Overmeyer  and  Bradley 
hoped  to  obtain  a  new  trial  were, 

First,  That  the  verdict  was  not  unanimous, 
that  it  was  a  conditional,  a  compromise  verdict,  and 
therefore  a  vitiated  verdict. 

Second.  That  the  court  erred  when  it  instructed 
the  jury  that  the  belief  of  the  defendant  in  regard  to 
the  character  of  the  indicted  articles  should  have  no 


08 


weight  in  determining  the  verdict,  thus  ruling  out  the 
motive  or  intent. 

The  pleadings  were  very  brief,  not  lasting  more 
than  twenty  minutes,  if  so  long.  The  court  limited 
Mr.  Overmeyer  to  five  minutes.  He  protested  that  he 
could  not  present  the  argument  in  so  short  a  time,  but 
his  protest  was  of  no  avail.  The  motion  for  new  tri- 
al was  overruled,  and  defendant  told  to  stand  up. 
The  judge  then  informed  me  tnat  I  had  been  found 
guilty  of  mailing  obscene  literature,  by  a  jury  of 
twelve  men,  and  asked  if  I  had  anything  to  say  why 
sentence  should  not  be  pronounced  upon  me.  1  re- 
plied in  the  affirmative,  and  asked  how  much  time  I 
would  be  allowed  in  which  to  say  wThat  I  wished  to 
say.  The  judge  replied,  "Five  or  ten  minutes."  This 
limitation  entirely  upset  my  calculations  also,  having 
made  a  number  of  notes  covering  the  leading  features 
of  the  trial, — both  prosecution  and  defense.  The  jail 
facilities  for  writing  being  very  poor,  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  defer  making  a  repoit  of  what  I  said  to 
the  judge  and  of  what  he  said  to  me  when  passing 
sentence,  until  a  more  convenient  season. 

Thursday  noon.  One  night  and  forenoon  in  pris- 
on. The  jail  is  quite  populous  just  now.  On  the 
lower  floor  there  are  twentysix  boarders.  The  cell  to 
which  I  am  consigned  had  already  three  occupants. 
Cells  about  eight  feet  square  and  seven  feet  from  floor 
to  ceiling.  The  furniture  consists  of  a  hard  bench 
about  five  feet  long,  and  four  steel  wire  mattresses 
with  a  blanket  to  each.  I  slept  scarcely  any,  last 
night;  not  because  of  mental  worry  on  account  of  the 
defeat  of  motion  for  new  trial,  or  because  of  any  un- 
expected severity  of  the  sentence — I  have  for  years 
schooled  myself  to  be  surprised  at  nothing,  therefore 
the  sentence  was  received  with  entire  equanimity  on 
my  part.  The  novelty  of  my  surroundings,  the  almost 
perpetual  noises  proceeding  from  the  various  cells 
separated  only  by  grated  doors  and  a  narrow  hallway, 
added  to  the  somewhat  close  and  malodorous  atmos- 
phere, were  probably  the  chief  causes  of  my  sleep- 
lessness. My  health  is  fully  up  to  the  average  for 
some  months  past. 


FIVE  YEARS  IN  THE  PENITENTIARY  AND  $300  PINE ! 

The  following  appeared  in  the  Topeka  Journal  of 

Thursday  evening,  May  1st: 

Judgo  Foster  late  yesterday  afternoon  passed  sentence  upon 
Moses  Harraan  lor  publishing  in  his  paper,  Lucifer,  at  Valley 


69 


Falls,and causing  to  bo  circulated  in  the  mails  obscene  and  indecent 
matter.  Hon.  David  Over  my  er  attempted  to  secure  a  new  trial  for  the 
the  defendant,butthe  court  overruled  the  motion.  Harman  refused 
to  stand  up  when  ordered  by  the  court  to  do  so,  but  his  attorneys 
lost  no  time  in  getting  him  upon  his  feet.  When  asked  whether  he 
had  anything  to  say  before  sentence  was  passed  upon  him,  he  said 
he  had  and  asked  how  much  time  the  court  would  give  him. 
Judge  Foster  allowed  him  ten  minutes,  which  he  consumed  in  en- 
deavoring to  show  the  court  that  he  was  a  martyr  to  opinion's  sake 
and  the  cause  of  emancipating  mankind,  especially  women,  from 
certain  social  evils.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  talk.  Judge  Foster  told 
the  prisoner  that  he  had  a  few  things  to  say.  The  first  was  that  the 
prisoner  could  not  plead  martyrship  to  decency  for  indecency.  He 
said  the  effect  of  the  teachings  of  Harman  was  bad,  whether  he 
intended  them  to  be  good  or  bad,  and  that  if  intention  to  commit 
crime  alone  should  be  deemed  crime,  there  would  be 
little  need  of  courts.  He  said  that  the  course  of  the 
prisoner  throughout  the  trial  had  been  rebellious  and  defiant, 
and  that  it.  had  not  appealed  to  the  leniency  and  mercy  of  the 
court.  He  had  seen  circus  performers  stick  their  heads  into  lions' 
mouths,  but  he  had  never  seen  them  have  the  temerity  to  twist  the 
beasts'  tails  or  kick  them  in  the  ribs  while  performing  the  risky  act. 
lLauerhter.l  He  then  sentenced  Harman  to  serve  live  years  in  the 
Kansas  penitentiary  and  to  pay  a  fine  of  $300. 

In  regard  to  the  above  I  have  a  few  words  to  say 
at  this  place: 

(1)  It  is  true  that  I  refused  to  stand  np  when 
ordered  to  do  so  by  Judge  Foster,  but  my  refusal 
was  based  on  the  impression  that  I  was  to  be  denied 
my  citizen  right  to  say  a  word  or  two  in  my  own  de- 
fense. I  meant  by  this  refusal  that  I  protested 
against  the  rulings  of  the  court,  and  that  I  did  not 
mean  to  be  a  party  to  my  own  conviction  by  obeying 
the  command  to  stand  up  to  receive  the  sentence  of 
the  court.  I  said,  "I  positively  and  absolutely  refuse 
to  consider  myself  a  criminal  and  therefore  refuse  to 
stand  up  to  receive  sentence."  When  the  ten  min- 
utes granted  me  had  expired  I  sat  down  and  refused 
to  stand  while  the  judge  replied  to  my  defense,  and 
while  he  passed  the  sentence,  as  told  by  the  Journal. 
This  sentence,  by  the  way,  was  by  far  the  most  po- 
tent part  of  the  judge's  argument.  Armed  with  this 
argument  there  was  really  no  need  for  him  to  waste 
time  and  breath  on  any  other.  What  need  was  there 
of  his  spending  fifteen  minutes  in  trying  to  disprove 
the  arguments  of  Celia  B.  Whitehead,  Lucinda  B. 
Chandler  and  hundreds  more  who  contend  that  the 
Markland  letter  is  not  obscene?  The  sentence  of  five 
years  and  $300  shows,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  perad- 
venture,  that  Foster  is  right  and  that  these  women 
and  all  other  defenders  of  Lucifer  are  wrong! 

(2)  It  is  true  that  1  maintained  the  proposition 
that  the  prosecution  against  me  was  in  the  nature  of 
a  persecution  for  opinion's  sake.  I  said  that  the  al- 
leged crime  of  obscenity,  like  the  alleged  crime  of 
blasphemy,  heresy  or  witchcraft,  is  simply  and  solely 
a  matter  of  opinion.  I  said  there  are  hundreds  if  not 
thousands  of  pure  and  good  women  and  men  who 


70 


honestly  believe  that  the  Markland  letter  is  not  ob- 
scene, even  when  judged  by  the  standard  set  up  by 
the  postal  statutes.  "I  hold  here,"  said  I,  "a  Remon- 
strance or  Protest  signed  first  by  eleven  well-known 
lady  writers,  one  of  whom,  Mrs.  Chandler,  has  been 
for  many  years  president  of  the  Moral  Education  So- 
ciety, with  headquarters  at  Chicago,  and  which  Re- 
monstrance has  been  signed  by  many  hundreds  of  wo- 
men in  all  parts  of  the  country,  in  which  document 
these  women  set  forth  and  defend  the  opinion  that 
the  indicted  articles  are  not  obscene,  not  of  immoral 
tendency,  but  on  the  contrary  that  their  tendency  is 
in  the  direction  of  a  higher  and  purer  morality  in  sex- 
relations  than  that  which  now  prevails.'1 

But  while  contending  that  the  prosecution  is 
based  on  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  moral  tend- 
ency of  the  indicted  articles,  I  certainly  did  not  mean 
to  pose  as  a  "martyr."  I  may  have  said,  however, 
and  probably  did  say,  that  while  not  seeking  martyr- 
dom I  was  quite  ready  to  meet  any  fate  that  might  be 
thrust  upon  me  while  in  the  discharge  of  what  I  con- 
ceived to  be  ray  duty. 

(3)  I  certainly  agree  with  Judge  Foster  that 
there  would  be  but  little  need  of  courts  if  "intention 
to  commit  crime  aione  should  be  deemed  crime,"  and 
while  I  do  not  say  that  the  intention  is  the  only  ele- 
ment in  any  or  all  crime  I  do  most  emphatically  say 
that  there  can  be  no  crime  where  this  element  is  lack- 
ing. I  told  the  judge  that  in  the  absence  of  over- 
whelming testimony  to  the  contrary,  my  own  state- 
ment, under  solemn  affirmation,  that  I  did  not  intend 
to  do  an  injury  to  anyone  ought  to  be  conclusive  testi- 
mony against  the  charge  of  crime  in  the  publication 
of  the  indicted  articles. 

(4)  If  to  make  a  respectful  but  firm  stand  for  my 
rights  as  a  citizen  and  against  what  I  believe  to  be 
the  encroachments  of  irresponsible  power,  and  if  this 
conduct  lays  me  open  to  the  charge  of  being  ^rebel- 
lious and  defiant,"  then  I  plead  guilty  to  said  charge; 
otherwise  I  plead  not  guilty.  It  is  true,  in  the  abso- 
lute sense,  I  did  not  "appeal  to  the  mercy  and  leniency 
of  the  court,"  and  for  the  honor  of  our  common  hu- 
man nature  I  hope  and  trust  that  I  never  shall  ask  for 
clemency  and  mercy  from  this  or  any  other  court.  All 
I  ask  for  is  Justice!  Justice,  equity,  citizen  right, 
natural  right,  is  good  enough  for  me.  Give  me  jus- 
tice and  I  ask  nothing  more  from  the  officials  of  this 
government,  or  from  the  executives  of  any  man-made 
law. 


11 

(5)  When  Judge  Foster  likens  himself  or  his 
court  to  a  powerful  but  naturally  fierce  and  unreason- 
ing beast  of  prey,  and  when  he  likens  me  to  a  fool- 
hardy circus  performer,  I  prefer  that  each  reader  will 
draw  his  or  her  own  inferences,  but  will  simply  deny 
that  I  have  wilfully  or  knowingly  put  my  head  into 
the  mouth  of  any  unreasoning  beast,  or  that  I  have 
knowingly  twisted  his  tail  or  kicked  him  in  the  ribs! 
I  have  given  Judge  Foster  credit,  all  the  while,  with 
being  a  reasoning  human  being  and  not  a  blood-thirsty, 
vengeful  animal.  Whether  the  unprecedented  sever- 
ity of  the  sentence  is  due  to  the  fact  that  I  have  not 
properly  estimated  his  character  as  an  official,  or  as  a 
public  servant,  and  also  as  a  man,  a  citizen — a  ruler — 
I  leave  others  to  judge. 


Friday  noon  (May  2).  I  am  still  here,  an  occu- 
pant of  cell  No.  4,  of  Shawnee  County  Jail.  In  most 
respects  I  think  this  penal  institution  is  very  weil  ar- 
ranged and  well  conducted.  Its  ventilation  and  sani- 
tary arrangements  are  above  the  average  in  excel- 
lence, so  far  as  my  observation  goes.  Though  not 
entirely  free  from  unpleasant  and  unwholesome  odors, 
there  is  little  cause  for  complaint  on  this  score.  The 
food  is  good  in  quality  and  sufficient  in  qnantit)r,  the 
most  serious  lack,  with  me,  is  the  abscence  of  fruit, 
milk,  butter  and  brown  bread.  Just  now,  during  the 
sessions  of  the  courts,  there  are  too  many  prisoners 
for  the  number  of  cells,  many  of  the  8x8-ft.  ceils  hav- 
ing four  occupants  each.  The  whole  number  of  pris- 
oners now  within  the  jail  is  about  50,  nearly  one  half 
of  whom  are  colored.  These  latter  occupy  the  upper 
floor.  Last  night  I  slept  well  till  about  four  a.  m., 
when  I  woke  up  with  something  of  a  head-ache, 
whether  from  insufficient  ventilation  or  from  indiges- 
tion, I  do  not  know.    Am  feeling  better  now. 


The  prospect  is  that  I  will  be  taken  to  Lansing- 
penitentiary  tomorrow.  Several  friends  have  called 
and  offered  their  services  in  any  way  possible  for  my 
comfort  and  welfare.  Among  these  are  my  son,  Geo. 
Harman,  and  Noah  Harman,  from  Valley  Falls,  both 
of  whom  came  over  to  Topeka  as  soon  as  they  got 
word,  by  telegraph,  of  the  sentence.  I  have  not  seen 
David  Overmeyer  since  sentence  was  passed,  but  un- 
derstand he  that  he  is  preparing  the  papers  upon 
which  to  ask  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corjius,  provided  our 
friends  think  it  best  to  apply  for  a  hearing  before  the 
supreme  court  of  the  United  States.    Wishing  to  get 


5507 


12 

this  letter  into  the  mail  in  time  to  catch  the  Valley 
Falls  train,  I  close  for  this  time.  Hopefully  ever, 

M.  Harman. 


MOTHERHOOD,- 

Or,  Mabel  Raymond's  Resolve, 

By   JLois  Waisbrooker. 

"Oh,  mothers,  prospective  mothers,  wake  up  to  the  power  you 
possess,  and  claim  yonr  heritage—the  conditions  for  perfect 
motherhood.  From  ont  the  dim  vista  of  the  future  comes  the  call 
of  the  advancing  generations:  'Prepare,  prepare  the  way.*  Oh, 
women  of  the  world,  arise  in  your  strength  and  demand  that  all 
which  stands  in  the  path  of  true  motherhood  shall  be  removed 
from  your  path.  Carry  the  spirit  of  this  demand  with  you.  Let 
the  very  atmosphere  that  surrounds  you— the  sphere  that  is  made 
op  of  the  activities  of  your  mental  and  moral  being  carry  with  it  a 
firm  faith  in  the  possibility  of  the  better  state  of  eociety.  Let 
your  own  children  and  prospective  mothers  all  about  you  sense 
this  power,  this  feeling,  this  faith  in  humanity's  power  to  rise,  and 
if  you  do  not  remain  in  the  body  long  enough  to  witness  the  inaug- 
uration of  the  new,  you  will  see  from  your  home  over  there,  the 
harvest  of  the  seed  you  have  sown." 

THE  AUTHORESS. 
Bear'  'ally  printed,  large  type,  superb  paper,  green  and 
gold  b:     N ;,  superior  workmanship  throughout.  With 
portra    >^  je  authoress— Price  $1.50. 

jl  %£al  arrangement  with  the  author  and  publishers 
we  ar.  Jied  to  offer  "Perfect  Motherhood"  and  Lucifeb 
one  y<  J  or  two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents.  Believing 
that  t  volume  is  just  what  is  needed  to  supplement,  in 
subst  *ial  book  form,  and  give  permanence  to  the  educa- 
tional vrork  that  is  now  being  outlined  in  Lucifer's  weekly 
edit!  qs,  we  earnestly  hope  that  this  offer  will  be  generally 
8cce  ted  by  our  readers.   Address  all  orders  to 

f  '  M.  Harman, 

|  Valley  Falls  " 


A.  r>lJ-$C5USJ5*IOiN  OF 

The  Social  Question. 

 BETWEEN — — — 

I        Juliet  H.  Severance,  M.  D,,  and  David  Jones. 

*  Thee  la  really  but  one  question  in  the  matter,  which  is  this: 
•Sha  Mutual  love  (as  proposed  by  Free  Lovers)  or  sellsh  lust  (as  It 
exis  jo-dav  in  and  out  of  marriage)  be  the  Isasis  of  the  relations  of 
*hc  xes?'  If  you  reply  that  mutual  love  should  be  the  basis,  then 
:>u  re  a  Free  Lover.  If  vou  reply  it  should  be  lust,  you  are  in 
sym  Mhy  with  the  pr  sent  laws  and  customs  of  society,  in  which 
puri  iy  of  life  for  woman  becomes  an  impossibility."—   Prico  15  cts. 

For  Sale  by  M.  Harm.an,  Valley  Falls,  Kansas. 


DR.  FOOTE'S  HAND-boOK 

 or  

urn  us  in  aim  us. 

This  is  another  of  the  books  that  might  truthfully  be  l*belle< 
"Multura  in  Parvo,"  Health  is  the  greatest  of  ail  earthly  blessings 
The  Compiler,  Dr.  E.  li.  Foote,  Jr  ,  6ays  of  this  little  work:  "W« 
have  endeavored  to  crowd  into  these  128  pages  as  much  of  the  rea 
essence  of  what  Deople  want  to  know  about  hygiene,  and  what  thej 
want  to  know  about  self  treatment,  as  possible,"  One  of  the  sh 
chapters  into  which  the  book  is  divided,  is  devoted  to  "Stirpicul 
ture— Fewer  children  and  Better— or  How  to  Avoid  Uadersirabh 
Children."  The  book  is  largely  a  condensation  of  Dr.  Foote  Sen 
ior's  teachings  through  his  "Health  Monthlv."  and  in  his  large  worh 
"FlainHome  Talk,  or~Medical  Common  Sense,"  so  welJ  knownto 
theAmerican  public.  Price,  only  23  cents. 


tHje  ka:ysas  fight 


— FOR — 


THE  FOUR  INDICTED  ARTICLES 


upon  which  the  Comstock  Censors  Founded  their  Prosecution  against 
Luoifer,  its  Editors  and  Publishers;  and  whicn  Case  is  Still  in 
Court.— 5cts. 


The  Accused  the  Accuse  «. 

Ike  Speeches  of  ths  Sight  thingo  tank  li 

IIsT  COTTR/T.  |J 

It  was  a  maxim  of  the  old  Romans  that  no  man  should  be  co 
demned  unh'/ai-d.  The  evidence  shows  that  the  court  that  convk 
ehists"  was  organized  to  convict,  and  that  no  otht 
,i  the  rulings  was  possible.   After  going  through  this 
.rial  the  accused  were  asked  what  they  had  to  say.  Ho 
jve  of  and  admiration  for  heroism,  for  magnanimity,  lor 
and  liberty,  shall  live  in  the  human  breast,  just  so  long  w  ;!l 
/eeches  of  the  Condemned  Eight  be  read  and  admired,  PapcY 
r.  188  pages,  35  cents. 

False  Claims  o»b«  Church; 

BY  JOHN  E.  REMSBURG. 

In  this  lecture  Mr,  Remsburg  shows  how  utterly  and  wholly 
false  are  the  claims  of  the  church  that  we  are  indebted  to  it  for  »' 
we  enjoy  in  the  way  of  civilization,  science,  learning,  liberty,  > 
He  also  devotes  several  pages  to  examining  the  assertion  made 
churchmen  that  unbelief  leads  to  immorality.   Reports  from  U  7i 
prisons  of  England  and  "Wales,  France,  Ontario,    Pennsylvani  »I 
Ohio,  and  Kansas  show  how  insupportable  is  this  assertion.  Pric 
10  cents. 


5507 


